Next Experience preferences

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Next Experience preferences

    Next Experience preferences in ServiceNow allow users to personalize the user interface (UI) of their instance, enhancing how it looks, behaves, and communicates. These preferences apply differently based on user roles: standard options are available to all users, while some are exclusive to administrators or specific contexts. Administrators can also set global preferences to control the overall Next Experience behavior for all users.

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    Key Features

    • Preference Modal Structure: Includes a search field for quick filtering, a preference category panel, and a preferences panel displaying toggles related to the selected category. The search uses fuzzy logic to find relevant preferences even with partial input.
    • Customization Categories: Users can adjust various aspects of their Next Experience UI, including:
      • Display Preferences: Modify layout, visual density, and presentation for a personalized screen appearance affecting only the current user.
      • Accessibility Preferences: Support different abilities by adjusting keyboard navigation, contrast, and motion behavior.
      • Debugging Preferences: Available only to admins, enabling detection and resolution of errors in Next Experience components and scripts.
      • Themes: Choose from multiple themes tailored by user access and admin customizations to personalize the instance's look.
      • Notification Preferences: Control how and where system and in-product notifications appear, including banners, badges, and email delivery.
      • Language and Region Preferences: Set language, time zone, and date/time formats to suit user location and preference.
      • Workspace Preferences: Customize behavior within a specific workspace, such as layout and interaction, visible only to users with workspace access and when the workspace is active.
      • User Experience Preferences: Manage broad behaviors like enabling/disabling Next Experience, analytics collection, and selecting start pages based on user permissions.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    These preferences empower users to tailor the ServiceNow UI to their needs, improving usability, accessibility, and personal productivity. Administrators benefit from centralized control to maintain consistency and optimize the experience across the organization. The dynamic search and categorized preferences simplify navigation and customization, ensuring users can quickly find and adjust settings relevant to their role and context.

    Next Experience offers user preferences to personalize your instance UI.

    Next Experience preferences let you personalize how the interface looks, behaves, and communicates with you; some options are available to all users, while others appear only to administrators or in specific contexts. If you have the admin role, you can customize the behavior of Next Experience across your instance by setting global preferences.

    The Preference modal is divided into three parts: a search field, preference category panel, and a preferences panel that displays the associated preferences for each selected preference category. Once a preference category is selected you see all the preference toggles for that category listed in the Preferences panel.
    Figure 1. Preference modal
    Preference modal with search bar, preference categories and associated preferences for each category.
    As you enter text into the Search field, the Preferences panel dynamically updates to show relevant user preference toggles, organized by category. The search function uses a fuzzy search filter, which finds applicable results even with shortened text.
    Figure 2. Preference modal Search field
    Preference modal with highlighted Search field and applicable search results.

    The following table shows how you can customize different preference types.

    Table 1. Next Experience preferences
    Preference Description
    Display preference button. Configure Next Experience display preferences: Control how the Next Experience interface looks and behaves on screen, such as layout, visual density, and presentation options. These settings affect only the current user’s view.
    Accessibility preference button. Configure Next Experience accessibility preferences: Adjust the interface to support accessibility needs, such as keyboard navigation, contrast, or motion behavior, to make the UI easier to use for different abilities.
    Debugging button. Configure Next Experience debugging preferences: Debug your Next Experience instance to detect and remove the existing and potential errors in your Next Experience components and scripts.
    Note:
    The debugging preferences only appear for users with the admin role.
    Theme button. Select a theme in Next Experience: Personalize your Next Experience instance by choosing from the multiple themes that are available to you.
    Note:
    The themes that appear in the Theme user preference are determined by the user access and admin customizations.
    Notifications preference button. Configure Next Experience notification preferences: Control how and where you receive system and in‑product notifications, including banners, badges, and delivery channels such as email.
    Language & Region button. Configure Next Experience language and region preferences: Define your language, time zone, and date and time formats.
    Workspace preference button. Configure Next Experience Workspace preferences: Customize behavior within a specific workspace, such as layout or interaction settings
    Note:
    The workspace preferences appear only if you have access to Workspace and the workspace is in focus.
    User experience preference button. Configure Next Experience user experience preferences: Manage high‑level Next Experience behaviors, such as enabling or disabling the experience, analytics collection, or selecting a start page, depending on your access.