How to set up an Intercom inbox in Front

Front's Intercom inbox allows you to answer your customers' chat inquiries from Front, saving you time from logging in to Intercom. You can also use Front's collaboration and productivity features when working on your Intercom messages.

• New conversations in Intercom that have at least one reply from a customer or change in status get synced into Front. New conversations that only consist of an automated greeting are not synced until the customer replies or until an Intercom admin closes them.

• Replies from Front are synced into Intercom.

• Conversation assignees are synced from Intercom into Front.

• Two-way sync on open and close status.

• Snoozing in Front syncs to Intercom as a close status; a snooze reopening in Front syncs to Intercom as open status.

When you reply to Intercom messages using Front, Front will attempt to find a matching user based on the email address in Intercom, and display that teammate name to your end-user. Front performs this lookup based on the email address this individual uses to log in to both Front and Intercom. In Intercom, the user must be an admin.

For instance, if Andersen uses andersen@example.com to log in to both Front and Intercom, then when Andersen sends a message in Front, it will be associated with Andersen's Intercom admin account and show Andersen's name to your customer.

In a situation where a Front teammate does not have an Intercom admin account with the same email as their Front login, Front will default to sending the Intercom message from the Intercom user who configured the Intercom integration in Front. 

For example, andersen@example.com was the Intercom admin who configured the Intercom integration in Front, and Cori <cori@example.com> attempts to send an Intercom message via Front. Cori does not have an Intercom admin account, so the Intercom message will be sent from Andersen.

Step 1

Click the gear icon on the top right of Front and select company, workspace, or personal settings in the left sidebar, depending on the space you’re working with.

Step 2

Click Inboxes in the left menu and create a new shared inbox or individual inbox.

Step 3

Click Channels in the left menu, then click the Connect a channel button.

Step 4

Under Messaging, choose Intercom and click Connect. At the next screen, click the blue Connect to Intercom button.

Step 5

Sign into Intercom, and click Accept.

Step 6

Choose the inbox that conversations will route to and click Save.

The Intercom sidebar plugin is a different feature that allows you to see contextual information about the customer of the current conversation you're clicked on. This is separate from adding an Intercom inbox. See here for details on how to set it up.

No. At present, Front will not import your Intercom history when connecting a new Intercom channel to Front

No. Bot messages from Custom Bots and Fin do not sync to Front.

No. Front's Intercom channel does not support Intercom Tickets. Only Intercom Conversations are supported.

The following are supported by default: .pdf, .png, .jpg, .gif, .txt, .mp4 and .mov.  You are able to add more formats from within your attachment settings in intercom.

You are currently only able to send image attachments when using Intercom via Front.

This feature is available on all plans.