The Salesforce is about to come out with yet another exciting release i.e Summer ’18 release. We bring to you highlights from Summer ’18 release to quickly get you through some of the most important and exciting features of this release.

With each new release, Salesforce is giving more power to lightning experience and encouraging classic users to shift to lightning. Lightning Experience is a completely reimagined interface. Even better, it’s built on salesforce UI platform, so the experience can grow and evolve with our needs. Lightning Experience has now become even more faster and easier to use.

Lets quickly dive in and take a look at the highlights from this release.

1. Get Insight into User Activities with the Lightning Usage App:

   Track adoption and usage of Lightning Experience. The Lightning Usage App includes charts for daily and monthly active users, number of users switching to Salesforce Classic, and more. These quantifiable measures help you understand your users’ experience and optimize your resources for training and other support.

   • To access the Lightning Usage app, click App launcher, enter Lightning Usage, and click Lightning Usage. Click a tab under ACTIVITY or USAGE on the left side of the page to view the associated data.

2. New URL Format for Lightning Experience and the Salesforce Mobile App:

It’s official! There’s a new URL format in town. When setting up pointers to areas in our org, we can take advantage of shorter, easier to understand URLs.

The new URL format is more readable, addressing the issue of being directed to an unexpected location when accessing Lightning Experience URLs before authenticating. Here are some examples of the new format.

• Object Home page

– Previous format: https:///one/one.app/#/sObject/Account/home

– New format: https:///lightning/o/Account/home

• Record page

– Previous format: https:///one/one.app#/sObject/006R000000245p1IAA/view

– New format: https:///lightning/r/Opportunity/006R000000245p1IAA/view

3. Search the Object You Want Easily from Anywhere:

When you want to search an object, cut the clutter, and see results only for what you’re searching for, from anywhere in the app. Choose any searchable object in the drop down list next to the global search box. Enter your search term, and both instant results and full search results are limited to that object.

• Searching by object type isn’t new, but we made it easier and faster. You no longer have to type an object name and choose Limit search to from the drop down. Now you can focus your search to any searchable object simply by choosing or typing the object name in the drop down.

4. Personalize the Navigation Bar in Less Time

• It has now become easier for users to personalize their navigation in Lightning apps. Your users can get back to work in no time with an enhanced user interface. Or, users can simply drag items around the navigation bar to where they want them to quickly adjust the order.
• If you want to add more tabs just click on the pencil on the right side of the navigation bar.

• If you don’t want your users to personalize the navigation bar for a specific app, you can disable personalization. From Setup in Lightning Experience, go to the App Manager. Edit the desired app. On the App Options page, select Disable end user personalization of nav items in this app. Users can’t change the navigation bar when you disable personalization or if it’s a Salesforce Classic app.
• If you don’t want temporary tabs to be created when users access items outside of the app, you can disable the behavior from the same page.

5. Streamline Your List Views with Detailed Filters

We no longer have to switch to Salesforce Classic to use detailed list view filter criteria. Find important data in your list views with more detailed filters in Lightning Experience, and supercharge your workflow.  Stay on top of your accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, and custom objects by surfacing the most relevant information when you need it. With these new filters, you can filter:

• Accounts by territory
• Contacts by campaign
• Leads by queue and campaign
• Opportunities by territory
• Custom objects by queue

Activities: Tasks List View

Reps can do much more with tasks now that they can see a list view. Built-in list view filters let reps find tasks quickly, columns are sortable, and reps can apply filters to narrow down what they see.

• Reps have three views to work with when viewing and managing tasks namely Table, Kanban and Split view.
• Users can change the view from the Display As dropdown list.
• The Kanban view lets users view tasks by status. Reps drag a task to change the status.

6. Build Flows and Processes in Service Essentials

Good news for all those who are using Essential and Professional edition. You can now use upto five active flows and five active process. Some other enhancements in flow are:

• Debug Your Flows in Cloud Flow Designer: Cloud Flow Designer now offers a debug option to help you test and troubleshoot your flows. Easily set input variables, quickly restart flows, and view all the gory details of what’s happening in real time as your flow executes.

• Despair no more! When you debug a flow, you can:
  • Easily specify the values of input variables. After running the flow, you can quickly change those values and rerun the flow.
  • Choose whether subflow elements run the latest version of each referenced flow.
  • View the step-by-step details of all operations, actions, and variable assignments as the flow executes them.
  • At any time, even mid-run, quickly restart the flow so that you can try a different branch.
• Process and Flow Error Emails: Generally Available with Org IDs and Recipient Control : When a process or flow element fails to execute at run time, Salesforce sends an email with the error message and details about the executed elements. If you used this feature in beta, check out the enhancements that we made based on feedback from beta testers like you.

7. Salesforce Surveys : Tailor Survey Questions Based on Participant Responses

• You no longer have to require participants to click through every survey question. Instead, use logic rules to present a participant a particular follow-up question based on the answer to a previous question. By adding logic rules, participants don’t have to wade through irrelevant questions, and you can gather more accurate data.
• Users must either have access to Health Cloud or be assigned to a Survey Creator license to create surveys.
• For example, you want to send a survey to attendees of an important meeting. You need to know if any attendees have dietary restrictions. If an attendee responds “yes,” you can follow up by asking about food allergies. If an attendee responds “no,” you can skip the question about food allergies

8. Sales Cloud Essentials: Eliminate Duplicate Records

Help our reps keep on selling while Salesforce does the record keeping. Now, that Duplicate Management is available for Sales Cloud Lightning Essentials, we can keep our data clean automatically. By eliminating duplicate records, our teams can trust that sales data is up-to-date and our company can trust that our customer database is accurate.

• This change applies to Sales Cloud Lightning Essentials
• Duplicate Management automatically merges duplicate contacts, accounts, and leads into a single record.
• Duplicate Management is available to all sales reps on Sales Cloud Lightning Essentials with a standard set of matching rules. Then, reps are alerted when they create or edit a duplicate record. If you’d like, you can customize your rules to match your business needs.

9. Einstein Forecasting: Improve Sales Predictions (Generally Available)

Einstein Forecasting is available only for managers and is currently limited to orgs that forecast by month. Einstein Forecasting uses data science and machine learning about your sales team’s opportunities to improve your forecasting accuracy.

To use Einstein Forecasting, our org must have:

• Collaborative Forecasting enabled and forecast hierarchy set up
• Two years of opportunity history using the standard Opportunity object and the       Amount and Close Date fields
•  Forecasts set by month, not by quarter, using the Opportunities (Revenue) forecast type
•  Standard fiscal year enabled, not custom fiscal year

10. Einstein Opportunity Scoring: Create Reports Based on Opportunity Scores

• The Score field is now available when creating custom report types for opportunities. For example, create report types that bucket
  opportunities by score, weigh opportunities amounts, and show how orders affect the likelihood an opportunity will close.

• To get started, create a custom report type with opportunities as the primary object and opportunity score as the secondary object. Then add additional criteria to focus on the data you need.

11. Einstein Automated Contacts: Review All Suggestions in One Place

• By seeing a complete list of what Einstein suggested and what action, if any, has been taken, you and your sales reps get more transparency into how Einstein Automated Contacts is impacting your data. Plus, see which sales reps are making the most use of this time-saving feature. And, because reps can add and decline suggestions from the list views, getting the most up-to-date data is easier than ever.

• From the App Launcher, select the Einstein Contact Suggestions or Einstein Opportunity Contact Role Suggestions item. Review the suggestions to see what’s been added to Salesforce and what’s been declined. Use the row-level actions to add or decline suggestions with the New status.

12. Get Twice as Many Free Predictions

• The free tier of service now includes 2,000 free predictions each calendar month (increased from 1,000 free predictions). We can use predictions interchangeably across Einstein Vision and Language.
• This change applies to Lightning Experience, Salesforce Classic, and all versions of the mobile app in Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, Developer, and Contact Manager editions.

13. Reset Your Einstein Platform Services Private Key

When you sign up for an Einstein account, you get a private key in the form of a “.pem” file. You use this key to generate an access token which is required to make API calls. But sometimes things happen. If you lose your private key, you can request a new one.

• We can reset by  navigating to the reset page at https://api.einstein.ai/reset. Enter the email address associated with your Einstein Platform Services account, and follow the instructions.
• Resetting your key generates a new key, but you still have access to your datasets and models. However, your previous key no longer works.

14. Einstein Vision: Deleting an Image Data set Returns a New Status Code and Response

The delete dataset API call no longer returns a 204 status code for a successful dataset deletion. Instead, the API returns a 200 status
code, indicating that the dataset deletion response was successfully received, but the deletion has yet to be completed. Deleting a
dataset no longer deletes the associated models. You must explicitly delete models.

• In addition to the new status code, the call returns a JSON response with a deletion ID. You can use this ID to query the status of the deletion. The response looks similar to this JSON.

{
“id”: “Z2JTFBF3A7XKIJC5QEJXMO4HSY”,
“organizationId”: “108”,
“type”: “DATASET”,
“status”: “QUEUED”,
“progress”: 0,
“message”: null,
“object”: “deletion”,
“deletedObjectId”: “1003360”
}

15. Products: Work with Schedules in Lightning Experience

With product schedules fully available in Lightning Experience, reps can now do it all in one place. Establish, update, and delete revenue and quantity schedules on opportunities without leaving Lightning Experience. If you’ve been waiting on product schedules to switch users to Lightning Experience, the time has arrived.

• This change is available to all users in orgs that have enabled Product Schedules. To turn on or configure product schedules, search for Product Schedules in Setup.

16. Accounts: Set Up Person Accounts in Lightning Experience

Set up person account page layouts, record types, and compact layouts without wasting time switching to Salesforce Classic.

• To set up person accounts in Lightning Experience, from the object management settings for person accounts, go to Page Layouts, Compact Layouts, and Record Types.

• Now, when sales reps create or update person accounts using quick actions, they see the correct name fields—Salutation, First Name, Middle Name, and Last Name. This makes it a snap for them to add or update information accurately, wherever you use quick actions, including on related record components.

17. Lightning Dialer : Coach Your Sales Reps with Call Monitoring (Generally Available)

Improve your sales reps’ selling techniques with personalized coaching. Use Call Monitoring to identify strengths and weaknesses in your reps’ interactions, and then improve overall sales performance through coaching.

• This change applies to Lightning Experience in Professional, Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions
• Sales managers can coach their reps from the Monitor tab in the call panel. The panel displays the users that report directly to the manager. A manager can monitor a single rep’s calls by clicking Listen.

• When connected, managers see the record related to the person the rep’s speaking to. Managers can also create a note related to the monitoring session. Reps see a banner if their call is being monitored.

• To use Call Monitoring, you need role hierarchy set up in your org.
• To allow users to use Call Monitoring, create a permission set with the Access Dialer Monitoring permission and assign it to relevant managers.
• Managers can coach only one sales rep at a time, and the rep must be a direct report. Only outbound calls are monitored. Call monitoring isn’t available for incoming calls.

18. Service Console : Resolve Cases More Quickly with Flows and Case Teams in the Service Console

Add the Guided Action List component to record pages to display a list of flows that your agents can follow to resolve cases. Add agents to case teams to collaborate on case resolutions. You can also use the new Lightning Console JavaScript APIs to customize your console.

19. Service Console : Set Default Email Field Values with Apex in Lightning Experience

Increase the quality of your customer service and save your agents time with default values for case emails. You can even put logic behind those default values, like copying a manager when a case is escalated or applying a specific email template. If you already use the Apex QuickAction.QuickActionDefaultsHandler in Salesforce Classic, your code works as is, so you don’t have to rewrite it in Lightning Experience.

global class EmailPublisherForHighPriorityCases implements
QuickAction.QuickActionDefaultsHandler {
    // Empty constructor
    global EmailPublisherForHighPriorityCases() {}
    // The main interface method
    global void onInitDefaults(QuickAction.QuickActionDefaults[] defaults) {
        QuickAction.SendEmailQuickActionDefaults sendEmailDefaults =
            (QuickAction.SendEmailQuickActionDefaults) defaults.get(0);
        EmailMessage emailMessage = (EmailMessage) sendEmailDefaults.getTargetSObject();
        Case c = [SELECT CaseNumber, Priority FROM Case WHERE
            Id =: sendEmailDefaults.getContextId()
        ];
        // If case severity is “High,” append “managers@acme.com” to the existing (and
        possibly blank) BCC field
    if (c.Priority != null && c.Priority.equals('High')) { // Priority is 'High'
        emailMessage.BccAddress = 'managers@acme.com';
    }
}
}

20. Service Console : Perform Mass Quick Actions on More Objects

Edit or create up to 100 records in a list view, except for recently viewed lists, with a mass quick action. You can use a mass quick action with cases, leads, accounts, campaigns, contacts, opportunities, work orders, and custom objects in Lightning Experience. Previously, create and update mass quick actions only worked on cases, leads, and custom objects in Lightning Experience.

21.  Service Console : Respond to Emails Faster in the Case Feed

Agents spend a lot of time handling customer emails, so we added a way to save them a few clicks. The email dropdown menu in the case feed now includes the Reply, Reply All, and Forward actions, and agents can view the actions without the expanding the email. Previously, agents had to first expand the email in the case feed.

22. Service Console : Create Case Teams in Lightning Experience

A case team is a group of people that work together to solve cases. For example, a case team can include support agents, support managers, and product managers. Based on assigned roles, all team members can be in sync while working on a case.

• Add the Case Team related list to case page layouts.
• Here’s what you can do with case teams.
  • Predefine case teams so that users can quickly add people with whom they work.
  • Create assignment rules that add predefined teams to cases that match specific criteria, such as when cases originate from emails.
  • Create email alerts that notify team members when an action happens on a case, such as when a comment is added.

23. Service Console : Attach Your Files to Emails with Drag and Drop

Save yourself some clicks. To add an attachment to an email, drag the file into the body of the email. You can drag attachments in any Email action that uses an HTML email publisher, but it’s not available for plain text email publishers.

24. Service Console : Set Up Omni-Channel in Lightning Experience

No more switching back to Salesforce Classic just to set up and customize Omni-Channel! You can stay in the modern Lightning Experience that you’ve come to know and love. All Omni-Channel setup pages, such as Omni-Channel Settings, are now available in Lightning Experience.

25. Service Console : Entitlement Management: Stop Agents from Marking Milestones Complete Accidentally

Milestones help agents provide your customers with timely responses. To keep agents from accidentally marking milestones complete, hide the Mark Completed link on the Milestones component. By removing this link, milestones are automatically marked completed only when the conditions are met. However, agents can still go to the milestone record page to mark a milestone as completed.

Please refer this link to view complete Summer ’18 release notes : Summer ’18 release notes

Salesforce Summer ’18 release Part II : Summer ’18 release: Part II