TL;DR
- What: Salesforce is retiring Open CTI. It’s already in maintenance mode, with no new features, and is unavailable in newly created Service Cloud orgs.
- When: February 28, 2028.
- Why: Open CTI was built for a different era and can’t support the AI-driven workflows that Agentforce Voice enables.
- How to prepare: Move to Salesforce’s native Agentforce Contact Center or a Partner Contact Center, such as Vonage Contact Center. Have a plan to start by early 2027.
Effective February 28, 2028, Salesforce is officially retiring Open CTI.
If your customer service reps use a phone panel embedded inside Salesforce, this change directly affects your business.
2028 may sound distant, but migrations like this can span months from planning to go-live, and the choices you make along the way shape how your team and customers experience the move. Here’s what’s changing, why planning ahead matters, and how to make this a real upgrade.
Why you need to start planning your contact center migration now
Replacing contact center technology means planning, integrations, testing, and getting your team ready. Migrations like this typically take 6 to 12 months from assessment to full deployment. With a February 2028 deadline, that means starting by early 2027 at the latest.
Waiting until the last minute risks disrupted service, frustrated reps, and customers who get passed around. Starting early gives you room to avoid that.
There’s also a reason not to wait that’s already in effect. Open CTI is in maintenance mode, which has two practical effects today:
- No new Open CTI deployments in new Service Cloud orgs. A new business unit, regional division, or acquisition can’t extend your legacy setup.
- No new capabilities. Salesforce is putting its innovation into its Contact Center and Agentforce Voice offerings. Open CTI’s feature set is frozen.
New opportunities hiding in the migration
Legacy Open CTI systems were built for a different era and can’t support the intelligent, AI-driven workflows modern businesses need.
Imagine an AI agent handling a routine customer call at 2 AM. If the request becomes too complex, the AI escalates to a human rep. With legacy CTI, it’s a cold handoff. The rep answers blindly, and the customer repeats everything they just told the AI.
On a modern contact center architecture, the handoff can include the full transcript, sentiment analysis, and customer history. The rep picks up already knowing what the customer needs.
A migration is your chance to set that up from a clean slate. You get to decide how calls should flow, rather than inheriting years of old phone menus and routing rules. Here’s where to start:
- Audit call flows. Retire dead phone trees, prune obsolete routing rules, and consolidate abandoned queues.
- Consolidate software. Drop standalone add-ons that your new setup handles natively.
- Route by live CRM context. Direct calls using account priority, open case status, and skill sets rather than static lists.
Contact center migration path options
You generally have two paths, depending on your organization’s complexity:
Agentforce Contact Center
Salesforce’s native contact center, built directly into the platform. It’s a strong choice for teams with straightforward routing, smaller agent counts, and minimal call-transfer complexity.
Partner Contact Center powered by Vonage
The scalable choice for larger teams, complex requirements, and deeper AI capabilities. It integrates industry-leading telephony directly into the Salesforce ecosystem.
Coastal’s opinion: Partner with Vonage for your Open CTI migration
If you need a Partner Contact Center, Coastal recommends Vonage. Upgrading telephony is a major undertaking, and Vonage offers a proven, reliable path through it. Here’s why they’re our go-to partner:
Deep Salesforce roots
Vonage co-developed the original Open CTI with Salesforce and is a leading contact center on the Salesforce AppExchange with a 4.93 of 5-star rating and 1,000+ customer reviews.*
*Based on average rating and number of reviews on the Salesforce AppExchange, as of October 2026.
Built for Agentforce Voice
Vonage is one of the only Salesforce telephony partners offering a native integration (SIP) designed specifically for Agentforce Voice. When an AI agent transfers a call, the human rep receives the transcript and customer history.
Routing on live Salesforce data
Power intelligent call routing with customer history, case ownership, or specialized skill sets. By moving from Open CTI to Vonage, businesses can further enable agentic AI to reason, act, and automate using real-time Salesforce and network data.
Built for scale
Vonage offers real-time supervisor dashboards, built-in compliance, and global coverage across 60+ countries and 125 languages.
Start your migration strategy today
Open CTI is going away on February 28, 2028, and the replacement is a bigger project than most teams expect. Enterprises who start early get to choose their new setup on their own terms instead of on a deadline. The best time to start is right now.
Ready to future-proof your contact center?
Coastal’s experts can help you assess your current Open CTI environment and build a tailored migration strategy.
