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Messenger FAQs
Beth-Ann Sher avatar
Written by Beth-Ann Sher
Updated this week

Setup

Is the Messenger available on web and mobile?

Yes, if you’d like to use the new Messenger (including tickets) in your mobile app you'll need to install or upgrade to v15.2.0 for iOS SDK and Android SDK, v11.0.0 for Cordova, or v0.59 for React Native.


Configuration and customization

Can I customize the Intercom Messenger?

Yes, you can (and should) customize the Intercom Messenger to match your brand. In your Intercom Messenger Settings you can add an accent color, background color, background texture and so much more.

There’s lots of other ways you can customize the Messenger. For example, you can:

Check out our customization guide for detailed instructions and best practices.

Who can edit the Messenger Settings?

You must have the “Can access Messenger settings”permission to opt-in to the next generation Messenger or change Messenger settings.

What is the "special notice" feature in Intercom and does it support hyperlinks?

The special notice beta feature in Intercom is a feature in conversations that allows you to display important information to users. As of now, it does not support hyperlinks.

Can I reorder the Messenger spaces?

Yes, you can reorder how the spaces appear by using the drag and drop in Messenger Settings > Web > Content. The Home Space will always remain at the top, but it can be turned off if you’d like to remove it from your Messenger. Learn more.

Can I turn Messenger spaces on/off?

The Messages Space is permanent. All other spaces can be turned on or off from Messenger Settings > Web > Content. Learn more about customizing spaces and control who can send you messages.

How do teammates appear in the Messenger’s team profile?

When a customer opens the Messenger and clicks ‘Start conversation’, they’ll see your team profile. Here, we’ll show the teammate or teammates who most recently replied to a conversation:

Here's how we decide which teammates to show:

If teammates reply within a week

We’ll show the three teammates who have most recently replied to a new in-app conversation in the last week. If only one teammate meets this criteria, we’ll only show one teammate. Likewise, if only two teammates meet this criteria, we’ll only show two teammates.

If no teammates reply in over a week

If no teammate has replied to a conversation in the last week, then we’ll show a single teammate who most recently replied to a new user conversation in the last month.

If no teammates reply in over a month

If no teammate has replied to a conversation in the last month, we’ll show the most recently active teammate in your app, regardless of their conversation activity.

We’ll never leave your team profile empty. We’ll always show at least one teammate. Make sure each of your teammates adds a friendly photo to their profile. If a teammate doesn’t have a photo, we’ll use their initials instead.

How do I make a teammate appear in the team profile?

It’s easy to make a specific teammate appear in the team profile. Just send your company a test message via the Messenger, and have that teammate be the first to reply to it.

Note: You can't select which three teammates appear in the team profile, or narrow it down to a specific team.

Does using Fin AI Agent change the team profile shown in the Messenger?

If you have Fin AI Agent enabled, the team profile will look different with Fins avatar in the middle with 2 teammates either side who most recently replied to a new in-app conversation in the last week.

If only one teammate has recently responded it will show like this.

You can change the image and name for Fin AI Agent in your settings here under 'choose an identity for your bots'.

Can I move the Messenger's position on my product or site?

Yes, you can move your Messenger’s position to suit your product or site. You can set this up in your:

How do I move the Messenger's position using Messenger settings?

By default when you install the Messenger, it will sit in the bottom right corner of your product or site.

To move the Messenger’s position on Web, go to Settings > Channels >Messenger > Web >Styes > Launcher.

Here, you can change the position to the bottom left and adjust the padding around it:

The position can will on be moved in the Messenger settings for the Messenger on computers/tablets. It will continue to show on the bottom right on mobile web.

How do I move the Messenger's position using code/programatically?

You can also move the Messenger’s position and spacing by changing your install JavaScript code. Just update the intercomSettings object in the Messenger installation script to include alignment, horizontal_padding, and vertical_padding:

window.intercomSettings = {
app_id: 'abc123',
alignment: 'left',
horizontal_padding: 20,
vertical_padding: 20
};

For desktop web, you can set your horizontal and vertical padding to 20px or higher. Padding values less than 20px will be ignored.

On mobile devices, the alignment, horizontal_padding, and vertical_padding values will be ignored.

You can only set your Messenger to appear on either the left or right-hand side of your site. It can’t appear in multiple positions across the same site.

Also, any changes to Messenger alignment in code will override your Messenger settings position.

When do borderless conversations appear?

With our borderless design, people can have conversations with your team on your website and web apps without needing to open the full Messenger.

In the Messenger, borderless conversations appear on the desktop web Messenger when you send outbound chat messages, and for all the conversation replies your teammates send.

Note:

  • When a user closes a borderless conversation, it returns to borderless again only when a teammate replies.

  • If a user has multiple unread conversations, they'll see a preview of all of them, and only upon opening one will it expand into borderless mode.

Can an end-user trigger borderless Messenger/conversation to display?

No, borderless conversations only trigger from teammate messages.

Can I hide my location in the Messenger?

Yes, where possible we recommend keeping your location (city and country) visible to provide a more personal experience for your customers. But we understand that there are some cases where you might want to hide it - for example, if you’re working remotely for a short period of time.

To hide your location, hover over your avatar in the navigation bar, and click your name.

This will take you to your individual profile settings. From here, click "Edit". Then select the "Hide location from users" button and click "Done".

If you’d like to hide your entire team’s location, each of your teammates will need to set this up in their own individual profile settings.

Can I disable the ability to send GIFs?

By default, customers and teammates can send GIFs using the GIF picker tool. If you feel that GIFs don’t suit your brand, you can disable them for customers in the Messenger, and for teammates in Inbox however you will not see the option to disable them yourself.

To disable GIFs, just get in touch with us and we'll disable them for you.

Disabling GIFs is only available with certain Intercom plans. See our plans and pricing here.

Can I remove the "Powered by Intercom" branding?

You may notice the "Powered by Intercom" branding placed subtly in three locations.

  • At the bottom of the Messenger

  • At the bottom of the Help Center

  • At the bottom of outbound messages

On certain plans you can remove this branding through the Messenger settings. Navigate to the Messenger and open the Settings > Channels > Messenger >General > Other preferences.

You will see the option to toggle the "Display a subtle link to the Intercom website" on/off: 👇

Toggling this option off will remove it from the Messenger, the Help Center, and any outbound messages you send (such as emails).


Troubleshooting

Why can't I see the Messenger

There's many different factors that might influence this. You can find Beth-Ann's article that contains different troubleshooting steps you can try. If you're still stuck, feel free to reach out to our Support team via the Messenger.

Why are my News Items not showing up in the News Space?

Audience targeting is done at the Newsfeed level. When creating a News Item, make sure you select all the Newsfeeds it should appear in. A customer will see the first Newsfeed that they match with. Learn more about managing your News here.

Why can't I enable Tasks on my Messenger?

To use Tasks in the new Messenger you'll need to enable Checklists first.


Accessibility and Performance

Is the Messenger accessible?

Accessibility refers to how easy it is for people with disabilities or who need other assistance to use our products. Some examples:

  • Screen reader technology reads aloud content on a page for blind or low vision users.

  • Keyboard navigation allows people to navigate through a web page or app without using a mouse.

  • Good color contrast helps low vision or colorblind users to clearly identify items on a page.

  • Creating content that's accessible (captions on videos, alt text for images, keeping in mind users with learning disabilities, dyslexia, etc.)

The new web Messenger and mobile SDKs haven’t been re-assessed and certified for WCAG compliance yet, so it is likely that there will be some accessibility issues. We’ll be re-auditing Messengers on all platforms for compliance.

With the new Messenger it's possible to choose custom color combinations that can make the Messenger perform more poorly from an accessibility perspective. We encourage you to select your Messenger colors with this in mind.

Does Messenger impact my website's loading time?

The load Intercom places on your site is quite minimal, as calls to our library are made asynchronously.

This means that if our servers were down and the library was stuck loading forever, it wouldn't affect the subsequent loading of the other elements on your page.

Additionally, we do minify our library to compress it as much as possible and reduce the amount of data required to load the Messenger.

How can I find out which web pages Live chats are starting from on my website?

In your default Overview report, the "Top pages for new inbound conversations" section displays the top 5 pages where your customers started conversations from within the date range that has been selected for the report, as well as the number of conversations started from each corresponding page.


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