Intercom
| Status | Kind | How you connect |
|---|---|---|
| Coming soon | Team chat and support | One click: approve bubbl3 on Intercom's own page |
Intercom isn't offered yet. This page says what it will do and what you can use meanwhile: a Lead URL, or Zapier, Make or n8n.
What it does
Connecting Intercom makes bubbl3 an iMessage channel for your Intercom inbox:
- when a teammate replies in a conversation (or starts one) with a contact bubbl3 can text, bubbl3 sends it as an iMessage from the line or pool you choose;
- the contact's reply is posted into their latest Intercom conversation as their own message;
- a text bubbl3 doesn't send, or holds for later, gets an admin note in the conversation saying why.
Only a person on your team is ever sent: a bot's reply or any other writer gets a note that bubbl3 couldn't confirm a person wrote it.
Setup
- In bubbl3, open Settings, Integrations, choose Intercom, then Connect, and approve bubbl3 on Intercom's page.
- On the connection page, under Texting provider, choose the line or pool these texts go from and turn it on (needs full access to conversations).
- Decide how new contacts agreed to hear from you: a person bubbl3 doesn't know yet gets the connection's consent setting, "Not sure" by default, which records their consent as unknown. They can still be texted, because you confirmed when connecting that everyone you send has agreed to receive texts.
Disconnect
Disconnect from the connection page in Settings, Integrations.
- Stops at once: teammates' replies stop reaching bubbl3, and contacts' replies stop being posted to Intercom.
- Deleted at once: bubbl3's Intercom access.
- Kept: contacts, with their messages and consent, in bubbl3. Messages and notes bubbl3 posted stay in Intercom.
- Deleted later: stored deliveries are deleted 30 days after they arrived.
Data shared
From Intercom to bubbl3: the teammate's reply text, the conversation and contact ids, and the contact's name, phone and email.
From bubbl3 to Intercom: contacts' replies (text only; photos and files stay in bubbl3) and notes saying why a text wasn't sent yet or at all.
Scopes and permissions
Intercom sets an app's permissions on the app itself rather than on the approval page. bubbl3's app has:
| Permission | Why bubbl3 needs it |
|---|---|
| Read and write conversations | Receive teammates' replies, post contacts' replies and add notes |
| Read contacts | Read the contact's name, phone and email |
Events
What bubbl3 receives
| Event in Intercom | In bubbl3 |
|---|---|
conversation.admin.replied, conversation.admin.single.created | Text to send. A teammate's reply or new message: bubbl3 sends it through the same checks as any text, or notes why not. |
What bubbl3 writes back
| What | Where it shows in Intercom |
|---|---|
| Replies | The contact's reply in their latest conversation, as their message |
| Message status | An admin note when a text isn't sent, is held or fails later |
Sending rules that still apply
Replies your team writes in Intercom go through the same checks as a text you send from bubbl3. Nothing in Intercom can turn them off.
- Consent. When you connect Intercom or create a lead source, you confirm that everyone you send to bubbl3 has agreed to receive texts from you, so its contacts can be texted straight away. bubbl3 never texts a contact who opted out, and a workspace set to text only opted-in contacts texts only them.
- Opt-out. Replying STOP opts a contact out at once.
- Quiet hours. No texts from 8:00 PM to 9:00 AM in the contact's own time zone (from the phone's area code). A text due then waits until the morning.
- Pacing. Each line texts at most 15 new contacts an hour and 50 a day (fewer while a new line warms up), and spaces texts 20 to 90 seconds apart. A big import or batch is queued and sent as the limits allow, never dropped.
- First messages. Until a contact replies, a text can't include links, photos or files, phone numbers or email addresses, must be 300 characters or fewer, and at most 3 texts go out.
What Intercom is told when bubbl3 doesn't send
An admin note on the conversation says "bubbl3 didn't send this text" with the reason. A held text gets a note saying when it's scheduled.
| Reason | Code | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| A link before the contact replies | pre_reply_link_blocked | Not sent: "Links can't be sent until the contact replies" |
| A photo or file before the contact replies | pre_reply_media_blocked | Not sent: "Photos and files can't be sent until the contact replies" |
| A phone number before the contact replies | pre_reply_phone_blocked | Not sent: "Phone numbers can't be sent until the contact replies" |
| An email address before the contact replies | pre_reply_email_blocked | Not sent: "Email addresses can't be sent until the contact replies" |
| A first message that is too long | pre_reply_too_long | Not sent: "First messages must be 300 characters or fewer" |
| Too many texts without a reply | pre_reply_message_limit | Not sent: "Already sent 3 texts without a reply. Wait for the contact to reply" |
| The same text to too many people today | identical_text_limit | Not sent: "This exact text went to 20 people from this line today" |
| The line is paused after unanswered texts | unanswered_streak_limit | Not sent: "This line is paused after too many unanswered texts" |
| The contact opted out | contact_opted_out | Not sent: "The contact opted out of texts" |
| The workspace texts only opted-in contacts | consent_required | Not sent: "This workspace only texts contacts who opted in" |
| No line can reach the contact | line_unavailable | Not sent: "bubbl3's line for this contact isn't available" |
| Quiet hours | quiet_hours | Held: "Scheduled for 9:00 AM America/Chicago, quiet hours" |
| The line's daily limit | daily_new_contact_cap | Held: "Scheduled for Oct 15, 9:00 AM America/Chicago: today's limit for this line is reached" |
| The line's hourly limit of new contacts | hourly_new_contact_cap | Held: "Scheduled for 2:00 PM America/Chicago: this hour's limit of new contacts for this line is reached" |
The numbers are the default limits; a line's own limits change them. bubbl3's other checks (no phone number, a number that doesn't match) have their own plain reasons.
Limits and known gaps
- A contact's reply reaches Intercom only once a teammate has written to them through bubbl3 (that links the conversation).
- Intercom shows no delivered or read status for these texts.
- Workspaces hosted in Intercom's EU or Australian regions can't connect yet.
Troubleshooting
- A teammate's reply wasn't sent. The note in the conversation says why: an opt-out, a link in a first message, or the texting provider turned off.
- "bubbl3 couldn't confirm a person wrote this". A bot or automation wrote it. Only teammates' replies are sent.