Key Developer Features Winter ’26 – What’s exciting in #Winter26 for Developers:

The Salesforce Winter ’26 release focuses on enhancing developer experience with features like the general availability of the Salesforce Database Encryption, improved LWC local development and browser API access via Trusted Mode, a unified ApexDoc integration, Track Event Publishing and Consumption, Custom Formula Fields with CDC and enhanced testing capabilities such as Unified Testing Results, Lightning Out 2.0 and Service Callouts and Payloads Without Hitting Apex Heap Limits. Other significant developer updates include permission enforcement for Apex classes in Flows and the Flow Comparison Tool.

Key Developer Features for Winter ’26 – Here’s what’s exciting in #Winter26 for Developers:

• Salesforce Database Encryption: (Generally Available):

Salesforce Shield helps you build extra levels of trust, compliance, and governance directly into your business-critical apps. You can encrypt entire orgs on Hyperforce with Salesforce Database Encryption. Previously released in beta, Database Encryption is now generally available.

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_encrypt_your_database_with_salesforce_database_encryption.htm&release=258&type=5

• Extend Salesforce Experiences to External Apps with Lightning Out 2.0:

Lightning Out 2.0 supersedes Lightning Out (beta) with stronger performance, enhanced security, and more customization options.

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_lc_lwc_lightning_out.htm&release=258&type=5

• Track Event Publishing and Consumption in Your Salesforce Org:

Gain insights into the events being published and consumed in your Salesforce org with the Event Studio dashboard. Understand how different events, such as platform events and event relays, and Lightning web components, impact the publish and delivery entitlements in your Salesforce org so that you can optimize your eventing strategy.

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_messaging_pe_event_studio.htm&release=258&type=5

• Include Custom Formula Fields in Your Change Data Capture Events

Change events now contain values from custom formula fields, alongside the fields that changed in the record.

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_change_data_capture_new_objects.htm&release=258&type=5

• Elevate Third-Party Scripts with LWS Trusted Mode:

This feature enhances LWC development by granting greater access to browser APIs, improving local development workflows.  Custom Lightning web components can now use third-party libraries that require access to the global context, which LWS and Lightning Locker normally block to maintain security.

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_lc_lws_trusted_mode.htm&release=258&type=5

• Standardize Apex Documentation by Using the ApexDoc Comment Format

ApexDoc, a new standardized comment format, makes it easier for humans, documentation generators, and AI agents to understand your codebase. Use ApexDoc comments to facilitate code collaboration and increase long-term code maintainability.

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_apex_apexdoc.htm&release=258&type=5

• Streamline Apex and Flow Test Retrieval and Execution

Get a unified view of your existing Apex and automated flow tests with the new Test Discovery API. Use the updated Test Runner API to execute Apex and flow tests in the same test run. Both APIs are Tooling API REST resources. You can also run and inspect both Apex and automated flow tests declaratively in Setup.

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_apex_unified_testing.htm&release=258&type=5

• Handle Large External Service Callouts and Payloads Without Hitting Apex Heap Limits:

Upload and download large amounts of data from your external service as binary files. Previously, transferring large blobs via Apex was bound by the heap limit. Now, External Services uses pointers to ContentDocument object IDs instead of loading the data directly on the Apex heap. With this more efficient process, you can upload and download binary files up to 16 MB. This feature provides an optimal method to transfer data that doesn’t require further Apex manipulation.

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_apex_ext_services_binary.htm&release=258&type=5

• Enforce Permission Requirements Defined on Built-In Apex Classes Used as Inputs:

This update enables permission requirements to be enforced for built-in Apex classes that are used as inputs for Apex actions. It also guarantees that the affected Apex action operates within the current component context.

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_automate_flow_release_update_enforce_perm_requirements_on_built_in_apex_classes.htm&release=258&type=5

• Flow Comparison Tool:

A new tool allows users to compare two versions of a flow side-by-side, making it easier to identify changes.

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_automate_flow_mgmt_compare_versions.htm&release=258&type=5

• DevOps Center (Generally Available):

The DevOps Center is now generally available, offering a streamlined, GUI-based approach to version control and change management within Salesforce.