How to choose the columns of Recently Viewed in Salesforce

Recently Viewed is the list most people open first, and it is the one whose columns you can’t change: it is a system list view, and “Select Fields to Display” is greyed out. The Recently Viewed columns for Salesforce template adds a Columns button to it. Tick the fields you want, and the list shows them next to the records you opened last, in your own browser.

Steps

1. In Skins Studio, open Explore, pick Recently Viewed columns for Salesforce and click Create App.
2. Open an object’s Recently Viewed list in Lightning, such as Accounts. Open the Skins side panel from the browser toolbar. The skin is listed under On this page.
3. Switch it on. A Columns button appears next to the list’s name.
4. Click Columns and tick the fields you want, such as Industry, Billing City or Type. Each one appears as a column straight away. Untick one to take it off.

What you get

• A Columns button on Recently Viewed, with the object’s fields as checkboxes.
• The columns you tick, in Salesforce’s own list, next to your recently viewed records.
• Your choice is kept per object in your browser, so Recently Viewed opens with your columns next time.

Limits

• The columns are yours: colleagues who don’t use the skin see the standard columns.
• It shows fields you can read. A field hidden from you by field-level security stays hidden.
• The added columns are for reading: sorting and inline editing stay on Salesforce’s own columns (Account Name and Phone).
• Salesforce keeps the list of recently viewed records, so its length and order stay as Salesforce sets them.

For developers

The skin reads the fields you tick through Salesforce’s UI API, as you: GET /services/data/v62.0/ui-api/mru-list-records/Account?fields=Account.Industry,Account.BillingCity. The mru endpoint returns your most recently used records of the object with those fields, in the same order as the list. It runs again when the list refreshes or a column is added.

Other options

• An admin changes them for everyone: the columns of Recently Viewed follow the object’s search layout (Search Results), which an admin edits in Setup.
• Your own list view: create a list view with the columns you want and pin it. It shows the records its filter selects, not your recently viewed ones.
• Ask Salesforce: upvote the idea. Its status is Open.