Next Experience release notes

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Next Experience release notes

    The ServiceNow® Next Experience application in the Australia release offers an enhanced, intuitive, and personalized interface powered by the ServiceNow AI Platform®. It is designed to boost organizational productivity, improve user engagement, and promote learning with AI-driven enhancements.

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    Key Features

    • Accessibility Improvements: A new user preference enables auto-focus on page alerts to automatically shift keyboard focus to critical alerts, improving navigation for keyboard and screen reader users.
    • Next Experience All Menu Editing: Administrators can now create and edit application menus and modules (Record, List, Dashboard, Custom pages) directly from the Next Experience UI via a centralized, native platform interface.
    • In-Product Surveys: Collect real-time user feedback within the Next Experience UI, with the ability for admins to disable surveys at the instance level.
    • Updated Coral Theme: The theme features a fully overhauled color system for better contrast and smoother gradients, softer outlines, rounded UI elements, and an improved dark mode with deeper blue tones to reduce eye strain. AI gradient styles and subtle animations highlight intelligent features, alongside smarter focus behavior to reduce visual clutter.
    • Works with ServiceNow Badge: A new badge appears in the user menu for custom-branded accounts across web and mobile experiences, without altering other branding or theme settings.

    Key Outcomes

    • Modernized User Interface: Transition to Next Experience provides a unified, accessible, and visually improved UI, replacing deprecated legacy interfaces (UI11 and UI15) which no longer receive updates or support.
    • Seamless Activation: Next Experience and Theme Builder are active by default in the Australia release, simplifying adoption. An opt-out property is available before upgrading if needed.
    • Browser Support: The Australia release drops support for Internet Explorer 11 and the iOS version of Firefox, ensuring compatibility with modern browsers.
    • Enhanced Accessibility: New accessibility preferences and guided tours help users customize navigation, keyboard interactions, and visual themes for an inclusive experience.

    The ServiceNow® Next Experience application delivers an intuitive, personalized experience that enables your organization to drive productivity, improve engagement, and inspire learning with the ServiceNow AI Platform®. Next Experience was enhanced and updated in the Australia release.

    Next Experience highlights for the Australia release

    • Manage the visibility of page alerts with a new accessibility user preference.
    • Explore a modernized Coral theme with better contrast, rounded UI elements, improved dark mode, and AI-focused enhancements.

    See Next Experience UI for more information.

    New in the Australia release

    Enable auto-focus on page alerts new accessibility preference
    Turn on the Enable auto-focus on page alerts preference to automatically move focus to the page alert. See the Accessibility section for details.
    Next experience all menu editing
    Create and edit application menus and modules directly from the Next Experience UI. Admins can configure Record, List, Dashboard, and Custom page modules from a centralized, platform-native interface.
    In-Product Surveys
    Collect feedback from users as they work in Next Experience. Admins can turn off surveys at the instance level.

    UI changes

    Updated Coral theme
    The Coral theme has been improved to enhance usability across web, mobile, and portal experiences that use Next Experience and Core UI:
    • A fully overhauled color system for smoother gradients and better contrast.
    • Softer outlines and more rounded components for a modern, accessible look.
    • A significantly improved dark mode with deeper blue tones for reduced eye strain.
    • New AI gradient styles and subtle animations to highlight intelligent features.
    • Smarter focus behavior that reduces visual clutter for mouse users.
    New Works with ServiceNow badge added to user menu
    The Works with ServiceNow badge now appears in the user menu for custom-branded accounts. This applies to web and mobile experiences with Next Experience or Core UI enabled. All other branding and theme settings remain unchanged. This update applies automatically.

    Deprecated features

    Starting with the Australia release, the legacy user interfaces commonly referred to as UI11 and UI15 are deprecated. These legacy UIs no longer receive enhancements, defect fixes, and will no longer be supported. Certain system features may continue to display through legacy rendering paths (for example, printer‑friendly views) and will be addressed case by case as part of ongoing platform improvements. Use the Next Experience for a modern, accessible, unified interface. For information activating Next Experience see Considerations for activating Next Experience.

    Activation information

    Next Experience is a ServiceNow AI Platform® feature that is active by default when the user loads or upgrades to the Australia release. If there are known problems with turning on Next Experience on an instance, an opt-out system property can be created before upgrade.

    Theme Builder comes with the Next Experience and is active by default.

    Browser requirements

    The Australia release doesn't support Internet Explorer 11. The iOS version of Firefox is also not supported.

    Accessibility information

    Enable auto-focus on page alerts new accessibility preference
    When enabled, this preference automatically moves your keyboard focus to important alerts so you don't miss critical messages while navigating with a keyboard or screen reader.
    Learn about accessibility preferences with a guided tour
    Explore accessibility preferences with a guided tour that shows how to customize navigation, keyboard behavior, and visual themes in Next Experience.