Call Center
A Call Center is the Salesforce Setup record that links one telephony system to your org.
Definition
A Call Center is the Salesforce Setup record that links one telephony system to your org. It lets agents take and place calls without leaving the application. Each record stores the connection parameters for a single computer-telephony integration, including the adapter URL where the softphone is hosted.
Call Centers are now the older way to wire up phone support. Salesforce files them under Explore Legacy Service Features. Open CTI, the API that creates and drives them, is in maintenance mode and retires on February 28, 2028. New voice builds go to Salesforce Voice, the line formerly called Service Cloud Voice, which uses a Contact Center record rather than a Call Center.
The record still governs one hard rule in every org that has one. A user sees no softphone and receives no routed calls until an administrator assigns them to a Call Center. Each person can hold only one assignment at a time.
In plain English
“Think of it as the wiring diagram between your office phone system and Salesforce. It tells Salesforce where to find the on-screen phone buttons and which staff are allowed to see them. If your name is not on the list, no buttons appear for you. Salesforce has since built newer wiring and is switching the old kind off.”
Worked example
A regional insurance carrier puts 60 claims agents on a partner telephony platform. The vendor ships an XML definition file, and the admin imports it at Setup, Call Centers. The file sets reqInternalName to ClaimsVoiceProd, a value capped at 40 alphanumeric characters that has to start with a letter. reqDisplayName reads Claims Voice Production, and reqAdapterUrl points at the vendor softphone endpoint over https, which a Lightning Experience org requires. reqSalesforceCompatibilityMode is set to Lightning, because that item defaults to Classic when you leave it out. reqSoftphoneHeight is 500 pixels, inside the Lightning range of 240 to 2,560. The admin then opens Manage Call Center Users and adds all 60 agents. A Softphone Layout on the Claims Agent profile pops the matching Contact detail page on a single match. Several matches pop a search page instead.
What the record holds, and why Salesforce is moving on from it
The fields inside a Call Center record
Every Call Center record carries a required block plus whatever the vendor adds. Salesforce documents nine req elements. reqInternalName is the unique database identifier, capped at 40 alphanumeric characters with no whitespace or punctuation, and it has to start with an alphabetic character. reqDisplayName is the human label, up to 1,000 UTF-8 characters. reqAdapterUrl points at wherever the CTI adapter or softphone is hosted, and a Lightning Experience org has to use https in that URL. reqSoftphoneHeight and reqSoftphoneWidth size the call-control panel, accepting 240 to 2,560 pixels tall and 200 to 1,920 wide in Lightning Experience. reqUseApi records whether the call center runs on Open CTI. reqSalesforceCompatibilityMode names the interface you plan to use, and omitting it defaults you to Classic. reqCanvasApiName and reqCanvasNamespace apply only when you add Canvas apps, which Lightning Experience does not support. Below that block, partner platforms bolt on their own parameters for authentication, dialing prefixes and server addresses, so two vendor records rarely look alike.
Where the shape of the record comes from
You do not hand-build those fields. The vendor ships an XML definition file and you import it at Setup, Call Centers, which reads the structure and creates the record. The file nests three elements: a callCenter root, one or more section elements grouping related settings, and item elements for individual fields. Sections and items each take a sortOrder integer and a name, and sortOrder cannot skip numbers inside one definition. An optional label sets what admins see. Naming has traps worth knowing before you import. Section and item names max out at 40 alphanumeric characters. They cannot begin with req, which Salesforce reserves for its own elements. Reserved words are also out, including label, sortOrder, internalNameLabel and displayNameLabel.
Membership is the switch that turns the softphone on
Configuring a Call Center correctly does nothing on its own. Open the record from Setup, Call Centers, then use Manage Call Center Users to add people, which requires the Manage Call Centers permission. Search results deliberately exclude anyone already assigned elsewhere, because a person can hold exactly one Call Center at a time. That exclusion catches admins out during team moves: pull the user off the old record first, or the new one will never find them in search. Removal works either one row at a time or by checking several names and clicking Remove Users. Build the membership list from the same roster you use for profile assignment, and finish it before training day.
Softphone Layouts decide what the agent sees
A Softphone Layout is effectively the page layout of the call-control panel, built at Setup, Softphone Layouts behind that same Manage Call Centers permission. One definition covers three call types at once: inbound, outbound and internal. For each, you pick which call fields appear, in what order, and which objects Salesforce searches for a matching record. Screen pop is where a layout earns its keep. Inbound calls branch three ways and every branch has its own choices. No matching record can pop nothing, a new record page, a Visualforce page or a flow. A single match can pop nothing, the detail page, a Visualforce page or a flow. Several matches can pop nothing, a search page, a Visualforce page or a flow. Layouts attach to user profiles, so two teams sharing one Call Center can see different panels.
Why this counts as the legacy path now
Open CTI is the browser-based JavaScript API that serves the softphone behind the adapter URL, and its status is what demoted the record. Maintenance mode has a precise meaning here: no new features or enhancements are being added, while what already works stays supported. Nothing breaks in a running org tomorrow. The hard gate sits elsewhere. A newly created Agentforce Service org cannot use Open CTI at all, so a greenfield build can find the door shut before it starts. Salesforce's own wording is to move development effort to Salesforce Voice for long-term compatibility. Read that as a planning input, not an emergency.
Call Center or Contact Center, and which one to build
The replacement has a confusing name history. Service Cloud Voice became Salesforce Voice. The developer guide was rebranded as the Salesforce Voice with Telephony Providers Implementation Guide, and Trailhead teaches the partner telephony version as Partner Contact Center. All three names point at the same thing. What none of them use is a Call Center record. Salesforce Voice runs on a telephony partner or on Amazon Connect, so the Setup node depends on that choice. For the partner route you go to Setup, Partner Telephony Setup, click New in the Set Up Your Contact Center section, and pick your provider. Some providers still want an XML file, but it is a contact center definition file rather than a call center one. What you get in return is native Omni-Channel routing and supervisor visibility that Open CTI never offered.
How organizations use Call Center
Sets reqSalesforceCompatibilityMode to Classic_and_Lightning so the softphone keeps rendering for the teams already moved and the ones still in Salesforce Classic.
Runs several Call Centers in one org, one per client contract, using the one-assignment-per-user rule to keep each client's agents off the other softphones.
Gives its inside sales profile a Softphone Layout that pops a flow when an inbound number matches nothing. Reps capture the new lead mid-call.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Set Up a Call Center (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- Manage Call Center Users (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- Design and Assign Softphone Layouts (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- Phone from a Call Center with Open CTI (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- Salesforce Voice with Telephony Providers Implementation Guide Release Notes (opens in new tab)Salesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Call Center.
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Call Center.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He writes and edits salesforcedictionary.com, published by KineticBit Inc., to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
+5 pts / dayQ1. An agent finishes training, logs into the Service Console, and reports that no call controls appear anywhere. The Call Center record and its adapter URL are both configured correctly. What is the most likely cause?
Q2. Which statement about reqInternalName in a call center definition file is correct?
Q3. You are scoping a new phone integration for a Salesforce org today. Which approach matches current Salesforce guidance?
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