The 4 Salesforce Voice Migration Paths for Open CTI Users, Explained

Once you accept that Open CTI is going away on February 28, 2028, the real question is where to go next. Salesforce has answered that with four supported Voice paths, laid out in its Trailhead module on choosing a migration path. All four end at the same place: a phone channel that is natively tied into Omni-Channel, your CRM data and AI.

Here is a plain-English walk through each one, and how to think about which fits.

Path 1: Partner Contact Center

This path is for teams whose current telephony vendor already has a managed package on AgentExchange (formerly AppExchange). You keep your vendor, and your vendor keeps managing the telephony backend. What changes is the Salesforce side: calls come through Salesforce Voice instead of an Open CTI softphone.

For most mid-market contact centers this is the least disruptive option, because phone numbers, IVR flows and the vendor contract stay in place.

Path 2: Partner Contact Center with Telephony from Amazon Connect

Salesforce describes this path for organizations that already operate their own Amazon Connect instance and want to bring it into Salesforce. You manage the telephony through your own AWS account.

Path 3: Partner Contact Center with Amazon Connect

This option gives you Amazon Connect telephony without running the AWS side yourself. According to Trailhead, Salesforce manages it through a managed AWS account.

Path 4: Agentforce Contact Center

The fully native route. Salesforce positions it for teams that want end-to-end Salesforce telephony with no third-party vendor, and Salesforce manages the telephony backend.

How to choose

Trailhead’s guidance comes down to your starting point. A few practical questions help narrow it down:

• Are you happy with your current telephony vendor? If yes, and it has a Partner Contact Center package, Path 1 usually means the least change for agents and customers.
• Is AWS already part of your stack? Paths 2 and 3 make sense if Amazon Connect is already in use or on the roadmap.
• Do you want one vendor for everything? Agentforce Contact Center removes the third party but means a bigger change to how telephony is run.
• How much digital routing do you need? If your vendor also handles chat, SMS or WhatsApp, Salesforce’s Bring Your Own Channel for CCaaS lets partners bring voice and messaging into Service Cloud through a managed package.

What every path has in common

Whichever path you pick, the migration work on the Salesforce side looks similar. Omni-Channel needs to be set up for calls. Custom Open CTI logic has to be rebuilt. And per Salesforce’s developer migration guide, call data moves from Task records to VoiceCall records, so reports and dashboards need to be re-pointed.

Salesforce’s own blog post on moving on from Open CTI argues that teams moving early gain a head start on AI-assisted service rather than just meeting a deadline. Whether or not you buy that framing, starting early clearly reduces risk.

What this means for your contact center

• Map your current vendor against the four paths before you talk to anyone about pricing.
• If you are on a vendor with a Partner Contact Center package, ask for a demo of the Voice version, not the old adapter.
• Plan for a period where Open CTI and the new setup run side by side so you can migrate agents in groups.

Vonage is one of the vendors with a Partner Contact Center package on AgentExchange. If you want to see how that path works for a US team, take a look at our Vonage Contact Center overview.

Sources

• Trailhead: Select Your Ideal Voice Migration Path
• Salesforce Developers: Migrate Your Open CTI Integration
• Salesforce Developers: Bring Your Own Channel for CCaaS
• Salesforce Blog: Moving on from Open CTI