Salesforce Open CTI is being retired — what your organization needs to know

When is Salesforce Retiring Open CTI?

The clock is ticking on legacy telephony integrations. Here’s how to get ahead of the 2028 deadline.

If your organization relies on Salesforce’s Open CTI framework to power your contact center telephony, you need to start planning now. Salesforce has officially announced it will retire Open CTI on February 28, 2028 — and while that may feel like a comfortable runway, the migration window is shorter than it looks.

Key fact: Newly created Agentforce Service orgs cannot use Open CTI today. If your organization is expanding or modernizing, this isn’t a future problem — it’s a present one.

What’s happening, and why it matters

Salesforce announced in February 2026 that Open CTI, the framework enabling third-party softphone integrations in Sales and Service Cloud, is entering full retirement. As of now, Open CTI is in maintenance mode: it will continue to work as-is until the retirement date, but no new features or enhancements will be added. After February 28, 2028, support ends entirely.

The good news: Open CTI’s retirement doesn’t mean the end of telephony choice in Salesforce. A wide range of telephony providers offer robust AppExchange solutions that integrate natively with Salesforce, without relying on Open CTI. Whether your priority is AI-powered agent assistance, deep CRM data integration, compliance-grade call recording, or cost efficiency, there are strong options available. The right choice depends on your organization’s specific needs, existing vendor relationships, and Salesforce configuration, not a one-size-fits-all recommendation.

Your migration roadmap

Industry experts recommend beginning migration planning 6 to 12 months before your target go-live date. For most organizations, that means starting the conversation now. Here’s the framework we use with our clients:

1. Audit your current Open CTI footprint. Catalog every integration, customization, and workflow that touches your telephony layer. Surprises during migration are expensive; the audit isn’t optional. ACS delivers a structured two-week audit that documents your entire Open CTI footprint, flags dependencies, and gives you a clear scope of work before any migration decisions are made.
2. Evaluate your telephony options. The AppExchange offers a growing ecosystem of telephony providers built for Salesforce. Assess each option against your requirements: agent experience, AI capabilities, compliance needs, licensing costs, and fit with your existing tech stack. Don’t default to the first recommendation; the right platform for your organization is worth finding. ACS provides a vendor-neutral evaluation of the options that fit your environment, so you can make an informed decision without relying solely on vendor sales pitches.
3. Build your business case. A migration of this scope requires executive alignment. Frame the effort not just as a compliance exercise, but as an opportunity to modernize your contact center and reduce long-term technical debt. ACS helps you build a compelling internal business case — complete with timeline, cost estimates, and the strategic upside — so you can get stakeholder buy-in faster.
4. Plan a phased rollout. Avoid a big-bang cutover. Pilot with one team or region, validate the experience, then scale. This approach surfaces configuration issues before they affect your entire contact center. ACS designs and manages your phased rollout plan, including pilot scoping, success criteria, and a scalable deployment sequence that minimizes risk to your operations.
5. Train and enable your agents. New tooling without proper change management is a recipe for resistance. Budget for enablement as part of the project, not as an afterthought. ACS works directly with your selected vendor to develop tailored training programs for your agents and administrators. By partnering with the vendor, we ensure the training reflects your specific configuration and workflows, so your team is confident and productive from day one, not weeks after go-live.

Don’t wait for urgency to force your hand

Two years sounds like plenty of time. It rarely is. Complex Salesforce environments, those with heavy customization, multiple integrations, or large agent populations, regularly take 9 to 15 months to migrate safely. Organizations that start late find themselves negotiating against their own deadline, cutting corners that create problems after go-live.

The organizations that navigate this transition smoothly are the ones that treat it as a strategic modernization project, not a last-minute compliance task. The retirement of Open CTI is a real forcing function, but it’s also a genuine opportunity to move your contact center onto infrastructure that will serve you for the next decade.

How Advanced Cloud Solutions can help

At ACS, we take a vendor-neutral approach to every telephony migration. Our job isn’t to steer you toward a particular platform; it’s to help you find the solution that’s genuinely right for your environment. We’ll audit your current Open CTI footprint, map your requirements, evaluate options on the AppExchange, and build a phased migration plan tailored to your operational reality.

If you’re just beginning to scope the effort or already evaluating providers, we’re ready to help you move forward with confidence.

Ready to start your migration assessment?

Our team can complete an Open CTI audit and deliver a tailored migration roadmap in as little as two weeks. Contact us today and learn more about how we can complete the process.