Most of the attention around the Open CTI retirement focuses on the date, February 28, 2028. For the admin who actually has to do the work, the more useful question is: what are the steps? Salesforce’s developer migration guide and its migration planning checklist give a solid outline. Here is a practical version for Salesforce admins and contact center managers.
Key facts at a glance
- Open CTI has been in maintenance mode since 2020, with no new features.
- New Agentforce Service orgs cannot implement Open CTI (effective February 16, 2026).
- Open CTI retires with the Spring ’28 release; legacy connectors stop working on February 28, 2028.
- Salesforce recommends moving to Salesforce Voice, through a partner contact center or Agentforce Contact Center.
1. Audit what you have
Salesforce’s checklist starts with auditing every opencti.* call in your adapter. On the admin side, that means listing which users have a CTI softphone, which call center definition is in use, and every screen pop, flow, report and dashboard that relies on call data.
2. Understand the data model change
This is the change that catches teams off guard. Salesforce explains that Open CTI typically logs calls as Task records, while Salesforce Voice uses VoiceCall records. Anything that reads Task call fields, including reports, dashboards and automation, has to be rebuilt against VoiceCall.
3. Set up Omni-Channel for voice
With Voice, calls come through the same Omni-Channel widget agents use for chat and messaging. Salesforce’s guide says rep presence is managed through Omni-Channel instead of the old Open CTI pattern, so plan your queues, presence statuses and routing before the first call.
4. Rebuild custom behavior
The developer guide maps the main replacements. Screen pops move to an Omni-Channel flow screen pop action. Custom iframe-based UI moves to Voice Extensions, the Voice Toolkit and Lightning Message Service. Supervisor features that were custom-built for Open CTI can often be replaced with built-in connector capabilities.
5. Plan transfers and multiparty calls
Salesforce notes that Voice with Partner Telephony supports four multiparty patterns. Test warm transfers, conferences and consults early, because these are the calls agents notice first when something is off.
6. Pilot side by side
Vendors such as Genesys confirm that the old and new integrations can run side by side. Pick one real queue, run it on Voice, and compare call logging, routing and reporting with the old setup before moving more agents.
7. Cut over in phases and retire the adapter
Move agents in groups, train as you go, and only remove the Open CTI adapter once every group is stable. Keep a short rollback plan for the first few weeks.
Common mistakes to avoid
The most common mistake is treating this as a simple package swap. It is not. The data model, the agent workspace and the routing all change. A second mistake is leaving reporting to the end. Managers notice broken dashboards on day one, so rebuild them during the pilot rather than after cutover. A third is skipping agent feedback. The people taking calls will spot gaps in screen pops and wrap-up steps faster than any test script.
What this means for your contact center
- Budget admin time for report and flow rework. It is often the largest single task.
- Check licensing. Salesforce Voice with Partner Telephony requires its own user licenses.
- Choose your telephony partner before you design Omni-Channel, since features differ by vendor.
- Start the audit this quarter so the build can happen in 2027 without a deadline crunch.
Want help scoping the move? As a Vonage channel partner, we help US teams plan a Salesforce Voice migration with Vonage Contact Center. Request a free consultation on that page.
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