Salesforce launches a new Trailhead app for easier hands-on learning
Salesforce on Thursday rolled out a new app that makes it easier to get started on Trailhead Playground, the free Salesforce learning environment that lets users test out any capabilities they could potentially leverage on the Salesforce 360 platform.
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Trailhead Playground is effectively a sandbox for developers, as well as admins or any Salesforce end-user like a sales representative. It's part of Trailhead, Salesforce's online learning platform. The new Trailhead Playground Starter app simply cuts out some of the friction for Trailhead users that want to get started on Playground, particularly those who are entirely new to Salesforce.
Salesforce launched Traihead about five years ago to equip workers with the admin and developer skills necessary for jobs in the so-called "Salesforce economy," which includes the 4.2 million jobs that the CRM giant and its ecosystem of partners and customers are expected to create between 2019 and 2024.
By the end of last year, around 1.8 million people had used Trailhead, according to Salesforce. Just about all of them use Trailhead Playground, said Sandeep Bhanot, SVP of Trailhead Product at Salesforce.
"We truly believe the best way to learn, especially for a product like Salesforce, is to get your hands on it," Bhanot said to ZDNet. "Employers are always looking for hands-on experience... When they want to employ someone with a Salesforce skill, they want to be sure you haven't just read some theoretical knowledge."
The new Starter app is accessible to users via the Salesforce App Launcher. When you create a new Trailhead Playground, it will now automatically open in the Starter app. When a new playground environment is launched, the new app will present you with a short video to get you oriented to the environment and offer best practices.
The new app also makes it easier to install AppExchange apps and packages into your Playground. The user just copies the ID number associated with the app or package and pastes it into Playground Starter to install it. The app also makes it easier to mange login credentials.