Once your call center is set up, you add the softphone to a Lightning console app so agents can reach it from the utility bar. These steps assume Open CTI or Salesforce Voice is already configured. You need the Customize Application and Manage Call Centers permissions.
- Confirm the telephony foundation
In Setup, verify that a call center exists (Open CTI) or that a Salesforce Voice contact center is provisioned. The softphone needs a backing phone system before it can connect.
- Open the console app in App Manager
From Setup, go to App Manager, find your Lightning console app, and choose Edit. Console-type apps are the ones that support a utility bar footer.
- Add the phone utility
On the Utility Bar (or App Settings) page, click Add and select the phone utility, such as Open CTI Softphone or the Salesforce Voice phone. It now appears in the app footer.
- Enable background loading
In the utility properties, turn on Load in background when app opens so agents receive incoming calls before they open the panel. Save the app.
- Design and assign a softphone layout
Under Setup, open Softphone Layouts, edit the call-related fields and screen pop rules, then assign the layout to the right user profiles. Save.
Keeps the softphone connected while minimized so inbound calls ring without the agent opening the utility first.
Sets how wide the docked softphone panel opens and the name agents see in the utility bar footer.
Maps each user profile to a softphone layout, so different teams get different on-call fields, objects, and screen pop behavior.
Defines what opens for an inbound call when it matches no record, one record, or several records.
- Without background loading enabled, agents can miss inbound calls until they manually open the softphone utility.
- Open CTI is in maintenance mode and retires in February 2028, so plan new builds on Salesforce Voice.
- Softphone layouts are assigned by user profile, so a profile with no assignment falls back to the default layout.
- Salesforce Voice runs on supported browsers like Chrome and Firefox, and single sign-on needs cookies enabled.