Combined On-Call Scheduling release notes for upgrades from Xanadu to Zurich

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated August 11, 2026
  • 7 minutes to read
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    Summary of Combined On-Call Scheduling release notes for upgrades from Xanadu to Zurich

    This consolidated release notes document guides ServiceNow customers through the key updates, changes, and important upgrade considerations for On-Call Scheduling from the Xanadu release through to Zurich. It highlights new features, performance improvements, and necessary steps to ensure a smooth transition, especially focusing on the major shift from workflows to subflows starting in Zurich.

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    Key Features

    • Transition to Subflows: Zurich introduces subflows instead of legacy workflows for On-Call Scheduling. Existing workflows remain supported for current Zurich users, but all new installations require building and maintaining custom on-call scheduling flows using subflows in Workflow Studio.
    • Custom On-Call Notification Channels: You can now add and configure new service providers as notification channels using the On-call communication channel configuration table. This enhances flexibility in communicating with stakeholders.
    • Customizable Notification Messages and Keywords: On-call notification messages and response keywords can be tailored to your preferences via the communication channel configuration tables.
    • Enhanced Trigger Rules: On-call escalation notifications can be triggered by changes to configurable record fields, such as incident priority. Trigger rules can be applied at group/team or global levels, supporting scenarios where assignment groups are auto-populated.

    Performance and Behavior Changes

    • New 2024 Schedule Engine (introduced since Xanadu): Provides improved management of schedules and shifts by resolving gaps from member changes or holidays, ensuring user continuity, and offering better performance when adding, removing, or moving members.
    • Email Notification Link Redirection (Yokohama): Links in major on-call schedule email notifications can now redirect to Service Operations Workspace (SOW) instead of the classic UI16, based on specific properties and roles.
    • Subflow Performance Enhancements (Zurich): On-call notifications are sent simultaneously across multiple channels rather than sequentially. High-priority notifications are processed faster via the Flow runner queue when enabled. Reminder notifications are also sent during instance upgrades.
    • On-Call Trigger Rules & Subflows: Trigger rules now support launching specific subflows, enhancing flexibility in automated on-call processes.

    Upgrade Considerations

    • Before upgrading to Zurich, review and complete all pre- and post-upgrade tasks, especially relating to the transition from workflows to subflows.
    • Existing workflows remain functional in Zurich but new instances require subflows for On-Call Scheduling customization.
    • No features or functionalities were removed or deprecated between Xanadu and Zurich releases.

    Activation and Requirements

    • On-Call Scheduling is activated by enabling the ServiceNow AI Platform On-Call Scheduling plugin (com.snc.oncallrotation) in all releases. This activation includes third-party libraries such as FullCalendar and DHTMLX scheduler.
    • The plugin is enabled by default for zBoot customers.
    • No additional requirements, browser changes, accessibility updates, or localization considerations were introduced between Xanadu and Zurich.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    After upgrading to Zurich, expect improved flexibility and performance in managing on-call schedules and notifications. You will need to adapt your custom flows to subflows rather than workflows, configure custom notification channels, and customize messages and trigger rules to better fit your operational needs. The new schedule engine and notification improvements reduce administrative overhead and increase reliability of on-call escalations. Email notifications offer better user interface integration choices. Overall, these enhancements support more efficient, customizable, and scalable on-call management aligned with modern ServiceNow platform capabilities.

    Consolidated page of all release notes for On-Call Scheduling from Xanadu to Zurich.

    How to use this page

    To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family On-Call Scheduling release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Xanadu to Zurich.

    Tip:
    If there were no updates for a release notes section in a certain family release, we included a short note for your reference. For example, if a product did not have any updates in Tokyo, the row says "No updates for this release."

    Important information for upgrading On-Call Scheduling to Zurich

    Before you upgrade to Zurich, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed.

    Release Release notes

    Xanadu

    		 No updates for this release.

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    Starting from the Zurich release, On-Call Scheduling uses subflows, not workflows. You must transition from workflows to subflows, because the workflows are considered as legacy workflows. For existing users in Zurich, your current workflows continue to be supported. However, for new users, the On-Call Scheduling plugin installations on Zurich and later instances only use subflows.

    Maintain, build, and modify your own custom on-call scheduling flows in Workflow Studio with subflows for new instances. The following subflows are available for configuration:

    New features

    Between your current release family and Zurich, new features were introduced for On-Call Scheduling.

    Release Release notes

    Xanadu

    		 No updates for this release.

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich
    Add custom on-call notification channels
    Increase the flexibility in communication by adding and configuring service providers as on-call notification channels. You must configure the communication channel by using the On-call communication channel configuration [on_call_comunication_channel_config] table. After you configure the channel, you can select the new channel. This feature is applicable only after the subflows are configured and used.
    Customize the on-call notification message and keywords
    Customize an on-call notification message and response keywords that are sent to the user and user groups as per your preferences. You can customize the message and keywords by using the On-call communication channel configuration [on_call_communication_channel_config] tables.
    Send the on-call escalation notifications when the configured record fields are modified
    Send the on-call escalation notifications when the configured record fields are modified. On-call trigger rules have the following enhancements:
    • Configure the changes to fields as a triggering condition to run trigger rules. For example, changes to the Priority field for an incident can be configured as a trigger condition.
    • Configure the group or team level trigger rules, or you can configure the global trigger rules that aren’t associated with a user group.
    • If the assignment group is auto-populated when an incident is created, you can still configure the on-call trigger rules to run and send the escalation notifications.

    Changes

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some changes were made to existing On-Call Scheduling features.

    Release Release notes

    Xanadu
    On-Call Scheduling new schedule engine
    The new 2024 schedule engine offers a more efficient and improved experience for managing your schedules and shifts. On-Call Scheduling supports an automatic upgrade to the new schedule engine.
    On-Call Scheduling new schedule engine
    The new schedule engine introduces the following enhancement:
    • Shift support to resolve gaps resulting from member placement.
    • Resolve daily rotation gaps, caused by adding or removing members, holiday schedules, or extra time.
    • Verifies user continuity based of the last on-call member from the previous schedule.
    • Improved performance by reducing the time required to add, remove, or move members.

    Yokohama
    Email redirection behavior for links in major on-call schedule email notification
    In all major on-call schedule or shift email notifications, you can now decide where the links to an on-call schedule or shift record are redirected. Instead of an on-call schedule or shift record automatically opening in the classic UI16 interface in On-Call Scheduling, the record can be opened in SOW. The on-call schedule or shift record link in an email notification opens in SOW only if the following conditions are met:
    • The Redirect SOW Email notification (sow_email_notification_redirect) property is set to true.
    • The Redirect SOW Email notification for On-call scheduling (sow_email_notification_redirect.on_call) property is set to true.
    • You have the sn_sow_user role.

    The ITSM Notifications Redirection (com.snc.itsm.notifications_redirection) plugin is installed and activated automatically to support this behavior.

    Zurich
    Performance improvements in subflows for on-call notifications
    The following performance enhancements are available for on-call notifications when subflows are used:
    • On-call notifications are sent to multiple channels such as SMS or email simultaneously instead of sending it sequentially.
    • When the com.snc.on_call_rotation.new_trigger_engine property is set to true, the on-call subflows are processed via the Flow runner queue. The on-call subflows that are marked as High priority are processed faster via a Flow runner queue especially when multiple events are triggered at the same time and are in the process queue.
    • Reminder notifications are also sent to users when the instance is upgrading.
    Enhanced on-call trigger rules to support subflows
    The on-call trigger rules form is enhanced to trigger a subflow when the trigger rule is executed. You can enable and select a specific subflow for a trigger rule.

    Removed

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some On-Call Scheduling features or functionality were removed.

    Release Release notes

    Xanadu

    		 No updates for this release.

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Deprecations

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some On-Call Scheduling features or functionality were deprecated.

    Release Release notes

    Xanadu

    		 No updates for this release.

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Activation information

    Review information on how to activate On-Call Scheduling.

    Release Release notes

    Xanadu
    On-Call Scheduling is available with activation of the ServiceNow AI Platform On-Call Scheduling plugin (com.snc.on_call_rotation). For details, see Activate On-Call Scheduling. Activating this plugin activates the following third-party libraries:
    • FullCalendar library
    • DHTMLX scheduler
    Note:
    The On-Call Scheduling (com.snc.on_call_rotation) plugin is active by default for zBoot customers.

    Yokohama
    On-Call Scheduling is available with activation of the ServiceNow AI Platform On-Call Scheduling plugin (com.snc.on_call_rotation). For details, see Activate On-Call Scheduling. Activating this plugin activates the following third-party libraries:
    • FullCalendar library
    • DHTMLX scheduler
    Note:
    The On-Call Scheduling (com.snc.on_call_rotation) plugin is active by default for zBoot customers.

    Zurich
    On-Call Scheduling is available with activation of the ServiceNow AI Platform On-Call Scheduling plugin (com.snc.on_call_rotation). For details, see Activate On-Call Scheduling. Activating this plugin activates the following third-party libraries:
    • FullCalendar library
    • DHTMLX scheduler
    Note:
    The On-Call Scheduling (com.snc.on_call_rotation) plugin is active by default for zBoot customers.

    Additional requirements

    If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for On-Call Scheduling we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Xanadu

    		 No updates for this release.

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Browser requirements

    If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for On-Call Scheduling we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Xanadu

    		 No updates for this release.

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Accessibility information

    Review details on accessibility information for On-Call Scheduling, such as specific requirements or compliance levels.

    Release Release notes

    Xanadu

    		 No updates for this release.

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    Localization information

    If there are specific localization considerations for On-Call Scheduling we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Xanadu

    		 No updates for this release.

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Highlight information

    If there are specific highlight considerations for On-Call Scheduling we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Xanadu
    • Reduce and resolve gaps in on-call shifts more efficiently with the new 2024 schedule engine.
    • Reduce the time required to add, remove, or move members from a shift more efficiently.
    • Confirm member continuity with the new schedule engine.

    See On-Call Scheduling for more information.

    Yokohama

    Control whether an on-call schedule or shift record link in all major on-call email notifications redirects you to Service Operations Workspace (SOW) or to the classic UI16 interface in On-Call Scheduling.

    See On-Call Scheduling for more information.

    Zurich
    • Build on-call escalation notification configurable flows by using subflows that are available by default in new instances.
    • Add new custom providers as channels for on-call escalation notifications.
    • Configure the on-call notification message and response keywords to send the escalation notifications to the stakeholders.
    • Send the on-call escalations notifications to all the stakeholders when any of the configured record fields are modified.
    • Use Coral, which is the new default theme for Next Experience and Core UI.

    See On-Call Scheduling for more information.