We’re introducing an upgraded contact and company experience in Freshdesk (and the ticketing module of Freshdesk Omnichannel) powered by the Neo platform, designed to improve data consistency and streamline customer interactions. This upgrade to contact and company management in your account is relevant if you use Freshdesk or Omnichannel and signed up before August 2022. Your account will be automatically upgraded to the new experience in phases starting October 2025. Further intimation will be shared on the exact date.
What you need to do first
If you use integrations that sync contact or company data (especially Work Phone or Mobile Phone), review and fix them before October 2025 to avoid disruptions.
Ensure your integrations sync contacts with valid phone numbers. The following guidelines apply to phone number fields (work phone and mobile phone):
Only numbers and ‘+’ is allowed
No letters or special characters
Length must be 5–30 characters
Note: Phone numbers for contacts can be left blank, but if they are filled, they should be in the valid format mentioned above.
If you’ve used phone fields to store other data (e.g., addresses), you can either create a new custom field or use one of the default fields to start storing/syncing that data.
To create a contact, one of the following fields is mandatory:
Email
Work Phone
Mobile Phone
Contact’s X (formerly Twitter) handle
Unique external ID
Ensure that the integrations you use fill at least one of the fields mentioned above while creating contacts.
Learn more about managing contacts.
Why this matters:
If your integrations send invalid data after the upgrade, any attempt to create or update contacts through them will fail or be rejected.
Key Timeline and Actions
Before October 2025 – Update integrations
Check and update any native or custom integrations that populate contact phone fields with invalid formats or unrelated data.
After October 2025 – Update contacts with invalid phone numbers
We’ll automatically clean up some phone number data where possible (e.g., remove spaces, hyphens, brackets, and dots). All remaining invalid contacts will move into a separate Contacts with Invalid phone number filter.
These invalid contacts won’t be visible in the main contact list and also can’t be filtered. You’ll need to manually correct these records to restore visibility and usability.
How to remove Invalid Contacts
You can view the number of contacts that require changes from a banner inside the product.
Note: You need to be an Administrator to see the banner.
Fixing individual records
Follow the steps mentioned below if there is lower volume of records and you want to fix each record individually:
Click View all in the banner to view the list of invalid contacts
Click on a contact from the list of invalid contacts and change the information required using the Edit Contact slider and click Update contact.
Bulk update all invalid records
Follow the steps mentioned below if you want to perform bulk operations/updates to correct multiple records at once:
In the Contacts list view, where you see the list of invalid contacts, click Export at the top
Choose the format to export - Excel or CSV
Go to Admin > Account Exports. Here you can view the list of contacts exported
Once you have made changes to the contacts in the exported file, click Import in the Contacts list view page to start importing the updated contacts
What’s changing in the product
Once your account is upgraded, here’s what you’ll see:
Improved 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.
Editable contact widgets on the ticket details page, with an overlay to edit full contact info.
New field: Other Phone Numbers – lets you store up to 10 additional valid phone numbers.
Phone number validation:
Only digits and ‘+’ allowed
Length must be 5–30 characters
Letters, special characters (except ‘+’), and dashes/spaces will be removed or rejected
Custom field changes:
You can no longer create new custom phone-type fields
Existing ones will remain as string fields
Duplicate dropdown values in contact/company fields will be automatically renamed (_copy) to prevent conflicts
Custom object lookups: You can now connect contacts and companies to custom objects. Learn more about custom objects.
Why is this update important?
This upgrade standardizes contact and company data across Freshworks products, improves accuracy, and enables faster, more personalized support experiences. It also unlocks compatibility with new channels like web chat and improves scalability for growing teams.
Need help?
If you have questions or want to review your account’s readiness, contact your Customer Success Manager or write to support@freshdesk.com.