If you have been following the Salesforce ecosystem for a while, you probably knew this day was coming. With the Summer '26 release, Salesforce is turning Chatter off by default in all new orgs. If you create a new Salesforce org after Summer '26, Chatter will not be enabled by default. You will need to turn it on manually. This small change is arguably one of the clearest signs yet that Chatter is going to be retired.
What Exactly Changed?
Starting with the Summer '26 release, Chatter will be disabled by default in all new Salesforce orgs. This change does not affect existing orgs created before Summer '26. If you already use Chatter, nothing changes for you today.
When Chatter is off, you lose access to:
- The Chatter tab and feed
- The Follow button
- Salesforce Chatter in the App Launcher
- Chatter groups and the Groups tab
- Chatter APIs
If you want to enable Chatter, you can still do it from Chatter Settings in Setup.
Why is Salesforce Doing This?
Salesforce’s explanation is straightforward: Salesforce Channels is now enabled by default in new Enterprise and Unlimited Edition orgs. Salesforce Channels brings Slack-powered collaboration directly to record pages.
For Essentials, Professional, Performance, and Developer Edition orgs, you can enable Salesforce Channels manually wherever Slack is available.
The message is clear: Slack is the future of collaboration in Salesforce. Chatter belongs to the past.
I Built Chatter. I'm Going to Kill Chatter
If this release update did not convince you, it is worth revisiting something Parker Harris said at Dreamforce 2024. Salesforce co-founder and Slack CTO Parker Harris did not mince words: "I built Chatter. I'm going to kill Chatter".
Coming from the man who created the product, that's not a rumor or a leak. That's a declaration of intent. Harris also made clear that the shift to Slack, combined with Salesforce's deep investment in AI, sets the new direction for collaboration inside the ecosystem. Chatter served its purpose for over a decade, but Slack now fulfills that purpose more effectively.
The Case for Chatter's Eventual Retirement
Let's connect the dots. In the span of a few years, Salesforce has:
- Acquired Slack in 2021 for $27.7 billion
- Launched Salesforce Channels (Slack-native integration built to replace the Chatter use case on record pages)
- Let its own co-founder publicly declare his intent to retire Chatter
- And now, with Summer '26, stopped enabling Chatter by default in new orgs
Although these are all clear signs that Chatter is being retired, Salesforce has not announced a retirement date. As of today, existing orgs continue to run it without interruption, and new orgs can still enable it manually. After his Dreamforce comments, Parker Harris also reassured users that no timeline had been set.
But "no timeline" does not mean "never". It simply means Salesforce has not told us yet.
What Should You Do Right Now?
If you are in a new org: Don't build on Chatter. Design your collaboration workflows around Slack and Salesforce Channels from day one. Future-proof yourself.
If you are in an existing org that relies heavily on Chatter: Start auditing your dependencies. Where does Chatter live inside your automations, Flow triggers, API integrations, or Case Feed? Map it out now, and you will save yourself serious pain when the migration comes.
If you are a Salesforce partner or developer: Salesforce wants partners to build Slack-native templates and workflows. That's where the ecosystem investment is flowing.
Final Thoughts
Salesforce turning Chatter off by default in Summer '26. It is not a surprise, it is a milestone. It marks the moment Salesforce stopped treating Chatter as the default collaboration tool and started treating it as legacy.
Will Salesforce retire it? Almost certainly. The co-founder said so himself. The only real question is when, and whether Salesforce will give customers a clear migration path.
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