The Java Telephony API (JTAPI) was designed by a consortium of industry-leading computer and telecommunications companies interested in designing a portable, object-oriented API for computer-telephony integrated call control. The requirements for this API were that it be simple, easy to implement on top of existing CTI platforms, integrate both first-party and third-party call control models, and be scalable and extensible. The initial working group consisted of representatives from Intel, Avaya, NortelNetworks, Novell, and Sun Microsystems.

After several draft releases, which were made available to licensees and to the public for review, the working group released version 1.0 of the JTAPI specification on October 30, 1997. The working group was joined by IBM for a follow-on version. JTAPI version 1.1 was released January 31, 1997. JTAPI version 1.2 was released in February, 1998. Following the release of JTAPI v1.1, other companies, who were members of the Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum (ECTF), worked to help developed the specification. Work was initiated on the new JTAPI media package (ECTF S.410) in February 1997. The JTAPI mobile work began in September of 1997. The two packages were released for the first time in JTAPI 1.3.

The ECTF is now the lead organization developing the JTAPI specification through the Java Community Process (JCP) . The JTAPI 1.4 team has used an adapted version of JCP 1.0, grandfathered so as not to require a TCK and RI; starting with the JTAPI 2.0 release, the general agreement is that the team will follow JCP 2.0 or higher version of the process.

There are no Reference Implementations (RI) or Compatibility Tests Suites (CTS) available for the Java Telephony API. The JTAPI specification is targeted at many different types and categories of telephony platforms including mobile phones, PBXes, IVR (interactive voice response systems), computer telephony servers, ACD (automatic call distributors), and call centers. These platform types have widely differing capabilities that require them to implement one or more optional sets of JTAPI packages and/or methods within a package in order to achieve the functionality desired by the industry. Many RIs and CTS, each customized to each telephony platform category, would need to be written to adequately cover all the target platform types. A comprehensive RI and CTS that covers and tests all combinations of optional JTAPI functionality would be exceedingly difficult to achieve in practice and be of questionable usefulness to implementers.