Salesforce retires Open CTI on 28 February 2028

Your softphone has a deadline. Here is what it means and what to do.

If your agents take calls through a phone panel inside Salesforce, it almost certainly runs on Open CTI, and Salesforce is retiring it. Below: what changes, what your options are, when to start, and a free read-only scan that shows what depends on it in your own org.

Scan my org Book a call

About five minutes. Nothing is installed, and your admin can revoke access at any time.

  • 5.0 / 5 on the AppExchangeAcross 13 client reviews of CX Labs consulting work.Salesforce AppExchange listing
  • 2 telephony projects, publishedVonage and Salesforce, with the client named and the outcome measured.8 Salesforce certifications across the team
  • Read-only, nothing installedThe scan reads configuration, code and counts, never record content. Your admin can revoke access at any time.Salesforce partner since 2019
  • 28 February 2028Open CTI end of life. Already in maintenance mode, and new Agentforce Service orgs cannot get it.Salesforce Knowledge Article 005306437
  • Salesforce VoiceThe replacement, with Partner Telephony. Lightning only, Omni-Channel first, and call records move to a new object.
  • USD 50 · EUR 50 · GBP 40Partner Contact Center list price per user per month. Your telephony vendor bills separately.salesforce.com, verified 16 September 2026

What is being retired

Open CTI is the Salesforce framework that puts your telephony vendor’s phone panel in the utility bar. It is what answers the call, pops the right record on screen, dials a number when an agent clicks it, and writes the call details onto a Task. Vonage and most other vendors deliver their Salesforce integration through it, and plenty of teams have built their own softphone features on top.

Salesforce has set the end-of-life date at 28 February 2028. Open CTI is already in maintenance mode, and new Agentforce Service orgs cannot get it at all. After that date it is unsupported, so anything that depends on it needs to have moved by then.

  1. 2026Take stock. Find out what depends on Open CTI, check where your vendor stands with Voice, and choose a path.
  2. 2027Migrate. Omni-Channel first, then the Voice call centre, then the rebuild and re-pointing work, then a phased cut-over.
  3. 28 Feb 2028End of life. Open CTI is retired. Anything still on it is unsupported.

What replaces it

Salesforce Voice with Partner Telephony (it used to be called Service Cloud Voice) is where Salesforce is taking telephony. Your vendor plugs in through a Voice connector rather than an Open CTI adapter, and the Salesforce side is built around that. Five things about Voice are non-negotiable, and they shape most of the work:

  • Lightning Experience only. Agents still on Salesforce Classic move first.
  • Not available in the Salesforce mobile app. Anyone taking calls on the mobile app needs a desktop set-up.
  • Calls are written to the VoiceCall object, not to the call fields on Task.
  • Omni-Channel must be enabled before Voice can be set up.
  • Salesforce and the telephony provider bill separately.

Why it is more than swapping the phone

  • The softphoneThe vendor's Open CTI adapter is replaced by its Voice connector. Anything your team built on the Open CTI API, whether in Visualforce, Aura, Lightning Web Components or a static resource, has to be rebuilt as a Voice Extension or with the Voice Toolkit.
  • Your call dataFlows, triggers, validation rules, reports and dashboards built on the Task call fields (call type, duration, result and the vendor's own fields) point at fields Voice no longer writes to. Each one needs re-pointing to VoiceCall, or it quietly stops showing new calls.
  • RoutingOmni-Channel becomes the routing engine for calls. Service channels, presence statuses and queues have to be designed from scratch, or checked if you already use Omni-Channel for cases and chat.
  • The agent desktopVoice lives in Lightning and not in the mobile app. The console, the utility bar and every agent's daily routine change on cut-over day, so the training belongs in the plan alongside the build.
  • Licences and contractsPartner Contact Center is USD 50, EUR 50 or GBP 40 per user per month at list price, and transcription needs the partner licence on top. Your telephony contract carries on separately. Salesforce's own native contact centre is USD 125 per user per month and US-only.
  • TimingThe work spans Salesforce set-up, vendor contracts and agent change, so it rarely fits in a single quarter. Starting during 2027 leaves room for a phased cut-over well before the deadline.

Three ways forward

  • Stay with your vendorKeep the telephony vendor and move the Salesforce side to Voice with Partner Telephony. Salesforce lists Amazon Connect, Five9, Genesys, NiCE and Vonage. Aircall documents a route of its own. For RingCentral, 8x8, Talkdesk and Dialpad, ask the vendor.
  • Amazon ConnectMove telephony to Amazon Connect, bought through Salesforce and priced by minute tier on an annual contract.
  • Native Contact CenterSalesforce supplies the telephony itself. USD 125 per user per month, and US-only for now: no EUR or GBP pricing as of September 2026.

When to start

It depends on how much of the above is true for you. The bands the scan uses:

  • Large (custom softphone code, more than 50 seats, or several active call centres): take stock in 2026 and start in the first half of 2027.
  • Medium: start in 2027.
  • Small (up to nine seats, no custom code, Omni-Channel already on): start in the second half of 2027 at the latest.

Every fact and Salesforce Help article on this page is listed, with sources, on our references page.

Find out where your org stands

Rather than guess, run the scan. It reads your org’s configuration, code and counts, never record content, and gives you a six-page report in about five minutes:

  • ✓How many seats move. Every Open CTI call centre and the people on it, so the licence number is real.
  • ✓What has to be rebuilt. Custom softphone code that calls the Open CTI API, named.
  • ✓What needs re-pointing. Flows, triggers, reports and dashboards that lean on the call fields.
  • ✓When to start. Your Omni-Channel, Lightning and licence position, and a suggested start window based on the size of the job.
Scan my org

We run the scan and the report is yours to keep.

Turn the report into a plan

The report tells you what depends on Open CTI. The Migration Roadmap turns that into something your leadership can approve: a fixed-fee, two-to-three-week piece of work where we confirm the findings with your team and your telephony vendor, settle the path, and hand over a project plan overview with the licence numbers, the rebuild list and the shape of the cut-over.

  • Week oneConfirm the findings against your org and your vendor's Voice connector. Agree the path, and who owns what.
  • Week twoSize the rebuild and re-pointing work, the Omni-Channel design and the agent change. Draft the plan and the licence numbers.
  • Week threeA timeline with a phased cut-over, a budget line, and a one-page summary for the people who sign it off. Fixed fee, agreed up front.
Talk about the Roadmap

Not the admin? Take the budget brief instead

If you own the budget rather than the org, you do not need to authorise anything. The brief is four pages: the seat maths, the Salesforce licence cost at list price, the work a migration actually contains, and a timeline you can put against a 2027 budget round. Leave a work email and it is yours.

Questions first? solutions@cxlabs.co.