Softphones, and why we did not build one

What a softphone is

An application that does what a desk phone does — dial, answer, hold, transfer — over the internet rather than a phone line. It may be a desktop app, a mobile app, or a browser tab.

The audio path is the same in all three. What differs is what has to be installed and who has to maintain it.

Why ours is the browser anyway

Because the alternative is an install on every machine, an update cycle, and a support queue full of version mismatches — for a business that may not have anybody whose job is IT.