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 Australia Release

    The ServiceNow® Next Experience application in the Australia release offers an enhanced, intuitive, and personalized user interface built on the ServiceNow AI Platform®. It aims to boost organizational productivity, engagement, and learning through a modernized UI and new accessibility features. This release also marks the deprecation of legacy user interfaces (UI11 and UI15) in favor of the unified Next Experience.

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    Key Features

    • Accessibility Enhancements: A new user preference enables auto-focus on page alerts, automatically moving keyboard focus to important alerts to help users with keyboard navigation or screen readers avoid missing critical messages.
    • Updated Coral Theme: The Coral theme now includes a fully revamped color system for better contrast and smoother gradients, rounded UI elements, improved dark mode with reduced eye strain, AI gradient styles with animations, and smarter focus behavior to minimize visual clutter.
    • Next Experience All Menu Editing: Administrators can create and edit application menus and modules (Record, List, Dashboard, Custom pages) directly within the Next Experience UI, streamlining configuration with a centralized platform-native interface.
    • In-Product Surveys: The Australia Patch 3 introduces the ability for admins to collect user feedback via surveys integrated into Next Experience, with an option to disable surveys at the instance level.
    • Branding Update: A "Works with ServiceNow" badge now appears in the user menu for custom-branded accounts on web and mobile, enhancing brand recognition without altering existing branding or themes.

    Important Changes and Considerations

    • Deprecation of Legacy UIs: UI11 and UI15 are deprecated and will no longer receive updates or support. Customers should transition to Next Experience for a modern, accessible interface.
    • Activation: Next Experience is enabled by default in the Australia release. Customers experiencing issues can opt out before upgrading via a system property.
    • Browser Support: Internet Explorer 11 and iOS Firefox are not supported in this release.

    Accessibility and Usability

    Next Experience includes a guided tour for accessibility preferences, helping users customize navigation, keyboard behavior, and visual themes to meet diverse needs. The new auto-focus on page alerts ensures critical information is promptly noticed by users relying on keyboard or screen readers.

    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.
    Australia Patch 3
    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.