An always-on Windows tray app that turns your organization's soft phone into a native desktop companion — so inbound calls ring even when the phone window is closed, and a live WebRTC call keeps running in its own window while you work anywhere else.
It hosts your tenant's first-party https://{domain}/softphone page in a dedicated
WebView2 window (the call's media leg), and keeps its own authenticated connection to
the tenant's telephony hub alive in the background. That lets it raise a ringing popup +
ringtone and answer, decline, or send to voicemail — even with no window open. It's
provider-agnostic: it never loads a telephony SDK and speaks only to your tenant's own
endpoints. The only site it ever contacts is the tenant domain you configure.
This app is a companion to a website running on OrchardCore with the CrestApps
Telephony module enabled. The server side — the /softphone page, the
/softphone/extension-config endpoint, and the telephony hub — is provided by:
➡ CrestApps.OrchardCore — Telephony module
The tenant must enable the module's Soft Phone Extension feature. You sign in with your normal site login inside the app — there's no separate password.
Choose whichever fits you. Release builds (installer, portable zip, MSIX) are attached to each GitHub Release.
| Method | Best for | How |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Store | Individuals — auto-updates | Install "Soft Phone" from the Store (once published). |
Installer (SoftPhone-Setup-vX.Y.Z.exe) |
Anyone — download & run | Double-click; installs per-user (no admin). The wizard asks for your tenant domain and preferences, so the app is ready on first launch. |
| Portable zip | No-install / quick pilots | Unzip and run CrestApps.SoftPhone.exe. Self-contained (no .NET needed). |
| Intune (managed fleet) | IT-managed devices | Push the Win32 package + locked domain config — see deploy/intune/. |
| MSIX sideload / Group Policy | Enterprise | See Enterprise deployment. |
The installer and portable builds aren't code-signed yet, so the first launch may show SmartScreen — click More info → Run anyway. The Store build is signed by Microsoft.
On first run (if not pre-configured), enter your tenant domain (e.g. phone.example.com).
The app validates it, you sign in, and the phone is ready. It starts with Windows and lives
in the system tray; right-click the tray icon for Open phone, Settings, and Quit.
Closing the phone window keeps the app running in the tray so calls still ring.
Open Settings from the tray (or the ⚙ in the phone window):
- General — tenant domain, start at sign-in, incoming ringtone.
- Diagnostics — a Run connection test that verifies the background connection can authenticate and reach the telephony hub, plus a live connection indicator.
Organizations can push and lock settings (at minimum the domain) via Group Policy or Intune — see Enterprise deployment. Managed settings appear read-only.
dotnet restore CrestApps.SoftPhone.Windows.sln
dotnet build CrestApps.SoftPhone.Windows.sln -c Debug
dotnet test tests/SoftPhone.Core.Tests/SoftPhone.Core.Tests.csproj
dotnet test tests/SoftPhone.Notifications.Tests/SoftPhone.Notifications.Tests.csproj
dotnet test tests/SoftPhone.UiTests/SoftPhone.UiTests.csproj # FlaUI, needs a desktopRun the app: dotnet run --project src/SoftPhone.App. Useful dev flags:
--tray— start hidden in the tray.--settings— open Settings directly.--simulate-incoming— raise a fake incoming call (ringtone + popup) with no live call.
Enable developer tools in Settings to add "Simulate incoming call" to the tray menu.
The MSIX package (package identity for toasts + start-at-login) is built through the packaging project on Windows with the Windows SDK — see docs/RELEASING.md. Day-to-day development runs unpackaged.
src/SoftPhone.Core— UI-free logic: the server contract, config/hub clients, the WebView2 cookie bridge, settings, enterprise policy, and the connection diagnostics.src/SoftPhone.Notifications— UI-free toast payload builder + activation-arg parser.src/SoftPhone.App— the WPF tray app, WebView2 phone window, and Settings.packaging/— the MSIX packaging project and the Group Policy (ADMX) templates.tests/— xUnit unit tests and FlaUI UI tests.
.NET 10 · C# · WPF · WebView2 · SignalR .NET client · H.NotifyIcon · MSIX · xUnit · FlaUI · GitHub Actions.
Store publishing is automated. Push a vX.Y.Z tag to build, package, sign, submit to the
Microsoft Store, and cut a GitHub Release — or use the Publish (manual) GitHub Action.
The tag is the single source of version truth. See docs/RELEASING.md.
The app connects only to the tenant domain you configure. It sends no data to the developer. See docs/PRIVACY.md.
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