We just launched our new Chatter Mobile app, delivering an awesome new way to use Chatter wherever you are. The new Chatter Mobile represents a huge leap forward for mobile social collaboration and includes a host of new features. Included in the new app is a new type of Chatter publisher that includes new custom actions that's all about helping users get their job done faster than ever.  

With custom actions in Chatter users can create a record faster than ever before. This is ideal for mobile salespeople, service reps, or even delivery people who need to take advantage of every moment, including creating everything from new contacts or sales tasks to custom actions such as on-site product verifications or new orders. Publisher actions can also make users more efficient and improve adoption by providing contextual, concise forms, right in the Chatter feed.

And the best part is that admins can create these actions easily with a few clicks inside of Setup and they are instantly available on both desktop and in the Chatter Mobile app. 

Here are five additional reasons to be excited about this feature.

1. Publisher Actions are Smart

Publisher actions are contextual. There are many business cases where the user needs to fill out different fields depending on where in the app the action is being performed. Forms normally display all the editable fields from an object’s page layout. However, there’s no concept of displaying one form if creating a record from an account, and a different form if creating a record from a case. With custom actions, you can create different actions designed from each use case where the record is created. For example, if users are looking at an account, they can create a visit note. And if your users are delivery people, and they are looking at a record like a store location, they can create and re-order with just one click.

2. Publisher Actions Simplify Steps

When creating custom actions for a new record that has multiple record types, each record type gets its own action. This cuts out the middle step where the end user has to choose a record type before they get to the form. Less steps equal faster actions and happier users. 

3. Publisher Actions Improve Data Accuracy

You can use easy formulas to specify predefined values to pre-populate the value of almost any field on the record. This reduces the number of fields users have to manually fill out, and can improve data integrity by encouraging users to enter the right values. If creating a specific type of action (i.e. just for accounts), the form can reference fields on the parent record to set the predefined value.

4. Publisher Actions are Simple

The fewer fields users have to fill in on a form, the more likely they are to complete it. So even if you need your users to fill out a ton of fields, actions allow users to have a different form for creating a record than for editing it, so it doesn’t have to be lengthy. Only the fields that are needed when the action is performed are included. In addition, once a predefined value for a field has been specified, it doesn’t have to be displayed at all, even if it’s a required field.  

5. Publisher Actions are Instantly Mobile

Custom actions are perfect for mobile use cases, which is why we are so excited about Chatter Mobile. When using the latest release of Chatter Mobile, actions simply work, with no setup needed to make them mobile. Just create your action and they magically show up in the Chatter Mobile app. And if you really want to geek out, the actions are also fully exposed through APIs, so they can be pulled into your own custom mobile apps.

To get the new Chatter Mobile app for iOS, click here.

To get the new Chatter Mobile app for Android, click here.