Outbound chat and post messages allow you to send targeted communications based on actions customers take on your website or in your app. These messages have higher engagement rates than email and give you full control over delivery options across web and mobile platforms.
Key benefits:
Target users based on specific behaviors or actions
Increase engagement with properly timed and positioned messages
Customize appearance with different delivery formats
Track effectiveness through measurable goals.
How to create a chat or post message
Navigate to Outbound from the main menu.
Click + New message in the top right corner.
Choose Chat or Post as your content type.
Tip: Browse templates in the left sidebar for quick starters covering common use cases like welcoming new users, offering help in customers' languages, or increasing newsletter subscriptions.
Customizing a chat/post message
For this example we’ll start from scratch with a 'chat', but the following steps also apply if you customize a template.
Before composing your message content, set the following options:
Select who the message should come from and who to assign replies to
Choose the reply type:
For chats: Collect visitor email addresses and allow text responses
For posts: Allow simple reactions or no replies, plus text responses
Select how the message appears:
Badge
Snippet
Full message
For Post messages, choose format:
Small
Large
Select where to show the message first:
Web
iOS
Android
Push notification options
If you've installed Intercom, and configured push notifications on your mobile app, you can also send these with chat messages.
Push notifications alert customers that you've sent them a message. When opened, notifications direct customers to your message, which makes them great for starting conversations.
Note:
This option will only appear if you have installed Intercom in your mobile app/s.
If you choose "Show first on Web and iOS", your message will get sent if a user visits your website or opens your iOS app. If they open the Android app first, they will not receive the message. If they open the Android app after they've already received the message via Web/iOS, the message will get delivered to Android as well.
Messages are counted as 'sent' once a push notification is sent, and marked as 'seen' when a user opens the message.
Add chat/post content
The simple composer lets you create personalized chat/post messages with these formatting options:
Press
Command/Ctrl + Bfor bold textPress
Command/Ctrl + Ifor italicsHighlight text to access header options and hyperlinks
Type
-,+, or*and hit space to create bullet listsType
1)or1.and hit space to create numbered listsAny URL you type will be automatically converted to a link after you hit space at the end of the URL
Add rich content to chats and posts
To enhance your message with videos, images, buttons, apps, file attachments, and more:
Hover over your chat/post message in the composer.
Click the + icon on the left.
Note: Video clips must be MP4 format, maximum 40MB, and will display in 4:3 aspect ratio.
A/B test your chat or post message
To optimize performance, create two versions of a message to determine which is most effective:
Enable A/B testing options at the top of the chat/post Content section.
Select Run a new test and create alternate versions of your content.
Track which performs better.
Add follow up actions to a chat/post
Below your message content, you can enable automatic follow-up options:
Qualify leads with conversation starters.
Let Fin respond to replies.
Send auto-replies (when Email collector is enabled as "Reply type").
Note: Email collector is only available for chat messages and isn't supported on mobile. For Fin AI Agent responses, you must have Fin live over chat.
Configure chat/post rules and scheduling
Set up audience rules
To only send your outbound chat or post message to specific customers, you'll need to configure the Rules section below your message content.
Here, you can define:
When to send
Where to send
Audience
Schedule your message
Next, you can schedule your chat/post message to send at exactly the right time. There are three ways you can do this:
Set specific dates and times for your message to start and stop sending.
Schedule messages to send during or outside your office hours.
Set a custom delivery times during which your message will send.
Set a goal
Every chat or post message you send should have a goal, but open and click rates will only tell you so much. Goals are the true measure of how a message is performing.
You can set a goal using any data you track in Intercom, whether it's an event or a user/company attribute. E.g. if your message should encourage people to create more projects, your goal might be "Projects is increased":
And that’s it. Your message is ready to Set live. 👍
FAQs
Can I retract a Chat/Post message that a user has already received?
Once a user receives the message, it will be available indefinitely in their "Messages" tab in the Messenger. There isn't a way to retract the message for a user, but you can delete the message in Intercom and this will remove it from the Messenger for all users who received it.
To delete message, open the message, click More and click Delete.
Note: You may want to export the message data before deleting it, as the message will be inaccessible in Intercom after it's deleted.
If I change the content of a live message, will users who already received it see the new content?
No, users see the content that was in place when they initially received it. For critical changes, duplicate the message, delete the old version, and send the new one.
Tip: Tag users who received the first message before deleting it, then exclude those tagged users from your new message's audience to prevent duplicates.
If I change the audience rules (or if a user no longer matches the rules) will they still see the message?
Yes, if a user already received a message and then no longer matches the audience rules, they'll still have access to the message in the "Messages" tab in their Messenger.
Is it possible to change <Name> from <App Name> to something more customized?
Default senders will always appear as "Name from App Name". The only alternative is using a custom sender address, which will display as "Custom Name <custom email address>".
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