What is OpenCTI

To display CTI functionality in Salesforce, Open CTI uses browsers as clients. With Open CTI, you can make calls from a softphone directly in Salesforce without installing CTI adapters on your machines. After you develop an Open CTI implementation, you can integrate it with Salesforce using Salesforce Call Center.

With Open CTI, you can:

• Build CTI systems that integrate with Salesforce without the use of CTI adapters.
• Create customizable softphones (call-control tools) that function as fully integrated parts of Salesforce and the Salesforce console.
• Provide users with CTI systems that are browser and platform agnostic, for example, CTI for Microsoft® Internet Explorer®, Mozilla® Firefox®, Apple® Safari®, or Google Chrome™ on Mac, Linux, or Windows machines.

Open CTI integrates third-party CTI systems with Salesforce. But do you wonder what came before? Or what the difference is between Open CTI and Lightning Dialer?

What came before Open CTI?

Desktop CTI, also known as the CTI Toolkit, is the predecessor to Open CTI. Desktop CTI required adapters to be installed on each call center user’s machine. With Open CTI, those user-side adapters are a thing of the past.

Desktop CTI is retired and you must migrate to Open CTI. Work with your partners to create an Open CTI implementation.

What about Lightning Dialer?

If you’re confused between Lightning Dialer and Open CTI, don’t be. Lightning Dialer provides a way to provision numbers and make calls directly from Salesforce. However, if you already have a telephony system in place, Open CTI is the way to go since it integrates to that existing system.

References:

https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api_cti.meta/api_cti/sforce_api_cti_intro.htm