Freshdesk is introducing a product enhancement to improve functionality and user experience. This article provides an overview of the upcoming changes, their timelines, and the actions you must take.

Enhanced Contact and Company Management

We're introducing a new contact and company experience powered by the Neo platform in Freshdesk. This update brings greater consistency, accuracy, and scalability to every customer interaction.

Who is this for?

This upgrade to contact and company management in your account is relevant to Freshdesk and Omnichannel customers who have signed up before August 2022. They will be automatically upgraded to the new experience in phases starting September 2025.

What’s changing?

Once your account is upgraded to the new experience, you will see the following changes:

  • Contact and Company fields

You get an enhanced UI where you can move or create new contact and company fields, similar to ticket fields. Learn more about creating default and custom fields.Enhanced Contact and Company Forms

With the new form or slider for contacts or companies, you can fill in mandatory fields or all the fields related to the contact or company. Learn more about creating contacts and companies. Learn more about managing customer data.

  • Ability to edit contact widget information on the Ticket Details page

An Edit link is available to agents who can edit contact information. The link opens an overlay on the Ticket details page, which contains contact fields for editing. Note that empty fields are not displayed in the widget but are included in the Edit panel.

  • Stricter phone number validation: Only numerical values and ‘+’ are allowed in phone and mobile fields (length: 5–30 characters). Characters other than numbers and ‘+’ will be automatically trimmed. Spaces and dashes will be automatically trimmed/removed. Any other special characters will not be allowed.
  • New field: A new field—Other Phone Numbers—lets you add up to 10 additional numbers.
  • Contact field limitations:
    • You can no longer create new custom phone-type fields.
    • Existing custom phone fields will remain visible and usable as custom string fields.
  • Dropdown values: Duplicate options for contact and company fields will be renamed to avoid conflicts (e.g., Option_copy).
  • Custom object lookup: You can establish relationships between contacts, companies, and custom objects. Learn more about custom objects.


Note: Custom objects are available for Pro and above plans.



What should you do?

  1. Review and update any integrations that sync contacts with invalid data

Example:

Invalid contacts:

  • Contact 1 – John Neuman
    Mobile Phone: 1800-APPLE-8119 (contains letters)
    Work Phone: xYaz!!22 (invalid characters)

  • Contact 2 – Maurice
    Work Phone: *uhashdk (invalid characters)

  • Contact 3 – Rob Patt
    Mobile Phone: 88 (less than 5 digits)

Valid contact:

  • Contact 4 – John
    Mobile Phone: +18881234567 (valid format)
    External ID: 12345ABCD

  1. Review contact records for any phone numbers with invalid formats—such records won’t be supported and will need manual correction post-upgrade.
  2. Check any custom dropdown fields for duplicate values. After the upgrade, you’ll see renamed values (_copy).

Things to consider

  • Invalid contacts will be highlighted in the product, after the move to the latest experience. When editing such contacts, the system will show a validation error to help you fix it.
  • Integrations: If you use native or custom integrations that reference contact fields, especially phone numbers or dropdowns, you may want to test them in Sandbox after the upgrade.
Note: Failing to re-configure your integrations will prevent you from creating or updating contacts through your Integrations after the new experience is live.
  • Impact on reporting and automations: Check any workflows, reports, or automations that rely on phone fields or custom dropdowns to ensure they continue working as expected.

Why this matters?

Your Freshdesk account is being upgraded to support a consistent contact experience across Freshworks products. This improves data accuracy, unlocks access to new channels like Web Chat, and enables faster responses, better personalization, and a more seamless experience across all support touchpoints.

If you have questions or want to review your account readiness, please contact your Customer Success Manager or write to support@freshdesk.com.