In this article, you will learn how to add new fields to the Activity panel in any given object. Creating custom activity fields will help you capture more details about your calls and tasks which you can report on later.

Watch the following video tutorial or refer to the step-by-step instructions below.

1. Go to Setup > Object Manager > Activity > Fields & Relationships > click New.

2. Choose the preferred field type.

In this example, we want to create an open text field to capture notes about the call, so we'll choose Text Area as the field type.

Note: Long Text Area fields are not supported; the maximum character count on Text Area fields on this object is 255.

3. Label your new field and add it to your page layouts by clicking Next, Next, then Save.

4. Once the field is created, add it to your global activity layout by going into Setup > Global Actions > click Layout next to the action you want the field added to.

In this example, we'll add the new field to the "Log a Call" action.

5. Drag and drop the new field onto the page layout below, then save your changes.

Refresh your browser to see the changes in action.

Go a step further and customize the values under Subject by following the steps below.

1. Go to Setup > Object Manager > Task > Fields & Relationships > Subject.

2. Scroll down to Task Subject Picklist Values.

3. Click New to add new values, or click Edit to update existing values.

4. Click Save when done.

5. Wait approximately 30 minutes for the changes to take effect.