Intercom Destination

Intercom is a real-time business messaging platform that lets you manage all your customer lifecycle activities in a single platform.

Find the open source transformer code for this destination in the GitHub repository.

This destination supports Intercom API v2.1 for cloud mode integration.

For existing Intercom destination integrations that leverage API v1.4, the RudderStack team will handle the migration internally. See the Changelog for more information.

Setup

1. In your RudderStack dashboard, go to Directory > Destinations > Cloud Destinations and search for Intercom.
2. Connect your source and click Continue.

Connection settings

Configure the following settings to set up Intercom as a destination in RudderStack:

• Name: Assign a name to uniquely identify the destination.
• Access Token: Enter your Intercom API access token. You can obtain the token by going to your Intercom dashboard and navigating to Settings > Apps & Integrations > Developer Hub. Then, select your app and go to Configure > Authentication. For more information, see Intercom documentation.
• Intercom REST API Version: Select your Intercom REST API Version from the dropdown as 1.4 or latest.
• API Server: Select your Intercom workspace server. By default, RudderStack sets it to Standard (US) and provides two other options - EU (Europe) and AU (Australia).
• Send AnonymousId as Secondary UserId: Toggle on this setting to send anonymous ID as the secondary user ID.
• Consent management provider: Configure the consent management settings for the specified source by choosing the consent management provider from the dropdown. If you choose Custom, make sure to pass the custom consent data to SDK.

Connection compatibility

Destination info
Status: Generally Available Supported sources: Android, iOS , Web, Unity, AMP , Cloud, Warehouse, React Native , Flutter, Cordova, Shopify Refer to it as INTERCOM in the Integrations object.

Connection modes
Source	Cloud mode	Device mode	Hybrid mode
AMP
Android
Cloud
Cordova
Flutter
iOS
React Native
Shopify
Unity
Warehouse
Web

Supported message types
Source	Identify	Page	Track	Screen	Group	Alias
Cloud mode
Supported sources
Device mode
Android
iOS
Web

In the web device mode integration, that is, using JavaScript SDK as a source, RudderStack loads the Intercom native SDK from the https://widget.intercom.io/ domain.

Based on your website’s content security policy, you might need to allowlist this domain to load the Intercom SDK successfully.

Configuration settings

After completing the initial setup, configure the following settings to correctly receive your data in Intercom:

• Send AnonymousId as Secondary UserId: Turn on this option to send anonymousId as the user ID to Intercom when the userId is absent from the event payload.

Note that:

• This setting is applicable only when sending events in cloud mode.
• It is helpful for tracking anonymous users on your site. For more information on the scenario where this setting is useful, see FAQ section below.

• Android API Key / iOS API Key: This is required for sending events from your mobile apps to Intercom. You can get it from your Intercom dashboard by going to Settings > Installation and selecting the relevant platform. Note that this setting is applicable only when sending events in device mode.

Other settings

• Client-side Events Filtering: This setting lets you specify which events should be blocked or allowed to flow through to Intercom. For more information on this setting, see Client-side Events Filtering.
• Consent management provider: Configure the consent management settings for the specified source by choosing the consent management provider from the dropdown. If you choose Custom, make sure to pass the custom consent data to SDK.

Adding device mode integration

Depending on your platform of integration, follow the steps below to add Intercom to your project:

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

// Rudder core sdk and intercom extension
implementation 'com.rudderstack.android.sdk:core:1.0.2'
implementation 'com.rudderstack.android.integration:intercom:0.1.1'

// intercom core sdk
implementation 'io.intercom.android:intercom-sdk-base:6.+'

// gson
implementation 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.6'

// FCM
implementation 'com.google.firebase:firebase-messaging:20.2.0'

// initialize Rudder SDK
val rudderClient: RudderClient =
    RudderClient.getInstance(
        this,
        WRITE_KEY,
        RudderConfig.Builder()
            .withDataPlaneUrl(DATA_PLANE_URL)
            .withFactory(IntercomIntegrationFactory.FACTORY)
            .build()
    )

pod 'Rudder-Intercom'

RSConfigBuilder *builder = [[RSConfigBuilder alloc] init];
[builder withDataPlaneUrl:DATA_PLANE_URL];
[builder withFactory:[RudderIntercomFactory instance]];
[builder withLoglevel:RSLogLevelDebug]; // optional
[RSClient getInstance:WRITE_KEY config:[builder build]];

Identify

The identify call captures the details about a visiting user.

A sampleidentify call is shown:

rudderanalytics.identify("1hKOmRA4GRlm", {
  name: "Alex Keener",
  email: "alex@example.com",
  company: {
    id: "group01",
    name: "Tech Group",
  },
  createdAt: "Mon May 19 2019 18:34:24 GMT+0000 (UTC)",
})

Using identify calls

You can use the identify call to create or update user information in Intercom, as explained below:

• Create/update a user: When you make anidentify call, RudderStack creates or updates the user in Intercom.
• Remove users from a company: To remove users from a company, you can pass remove: true inside the company object:

rudderanalytics.identify("1hKOmRA4GRlm", {
  name: "Alex Keener",
  email: "alex@example.com",
  company: {
    id: "group01",
    name: "Tech Group",
    remove: true
  },
  createdAt: "Mon May 19 2019 18:34:24 GMT+0000 (UTC)",
})

• Unsubscribe users: To unsubscribe users from emails, you can pass unsubscribedFromEmails: true inside the context object:

rudderanalytics.identify("1hKOmRA4GRlm", {
  name: "Alex Keener",
  email: "alex@example.com",
  company: {
    id: "group01",
    name: "Tech Group",
  },
  unsubscribedFromEmails: true,
  createdAt: "Mon May 19 2019 18:34:24 GMT+0000 (UTC)",
})

• Associate user with a company: To link a user to a company, use the group call.

RudderStack does not support Intercom’s Last Seen feature currently.

Traits mapping

The following table lists the mapping of the RudderStack traits to the Intercom properties:

Identity verification

Intercom’s identity verification feature ensures the privacy of the conversations between you and your users. It also makes sure that one user cannot impersonate another.

RudderStack supports the identity verification feature for the events sent through the web device mode.

To use the identity verification feature in web device mode, you can pass user_hash within the integrations object, as shown in the following snippet:

rudderanalytics.identify(
  "1hKOmRA4GRlm", {
    name: "Alex Keener",
    country: "USA"
  }, {
    Intercom: {
      user_hash: "9c56cc51b374c3ba189210d5b6d4bf57790d351c96c47c02190ecf1e430635ab",
    },
  }
);

The user_hash is a SHA256 hash of your Intercom API secret and the userId. Note that this hash is not based on the user’s email.

To obtain your Intercom API secret, go to your Intercom dashboard and navigate to Settings > Apps & Integrations > Developer Hub. Then select your app and go to Configure > Basic information. You will find the API secret listed here under Client secret.

Deleting a user

You can delete a user in Intercom using the Suppression with Delete regulation of the RudderStack User Suppression API.

To delete a user, you must specify their userId in the event. Additionally, you can specify a custom identifier (optional) in the event.

A sample regulation request body for deleting a user in Intercom is shown below:

{
  "regulationType": "suppress_with_delete",
  "destinationIds": [
    "2FIKkByqn37FhzczP23eZmURciA"
  ],
  "users": [{
    "userId": "1hKOmRA4GRlm",
    "<customKey>": "<customValue>"
  }]
}

Track

The track call lets you track user’s actions along with any properties associated with those actions.

You must identify a user with a valid userId or email before making any track calls to Intercom.

A sample track call is shown below:

rudderanalytics.track("Order Completed", {
  order_id: "140021222",
  email: "alex@example.com",
  checkout_id: "EAP3211",
  products: "Sports Shoes",
  total: 145.99,
  currency: "USD"
})

Note that:

• To send a track call to Intercom successfully, you must include any one of the userId or email fields.
• RudderStack converts and sends all track event properties as per the Intercom API.

Properties mapping

The following table lists the mapping of the RudderStack track properties to the Intercom properties:

Page

The page call lets you record your website’s page views with any additional relevant information about the viewed page.

The page call is supported only for the JavaScript SDK when sending events via device mode. It works by triggering Intercom’s update method, which looks for a list of new open conversations to be displayed to the current user.

A sample page call looks like the following code snippet:

rudderanalytics.page("Best Seller")

Group

The group call lets you link an identified user to a group like a company, organization, or an account. Along with that, you can add tags to a company.

RudderStack uses this information to create or update a company in Intercom using their /companies endpoint.

A sample group call is shown below:

rudderanalytics.group("group123", {
  name: "companyName",
  industry: "IT",
  employees: 450
})

RudderStack requires a groupId (group123 in the above example) to send group events to Intercom. It maps this field to Intercom’s company_id field.

Supported mappings

The following table lists the mapping of the RudderStack group traits to the Intercom properties:

Reset

The reset method resets the previously identified user and any related information.

rudderClient.reset();

[[RSClient sharedInstance] reset];

User lookup

RudderStack supports user lookup in identify and group calls. By default, it performs the lookup using the email field. However, you can provide a custom field for the lookup using the event’s integrations object.

Note that:

• You can only send the fields accepted by Intercom for user lookup. These fields are case sensitive.
• The field you are passing for the lookup must be present in the event.

A sample identify event highlighting this feature:

rudderanalytics.identify('1hKOmRA4el9Z', {
  email: 'alex@example.com',
  phone: '+1-202-555-0146',
}, {
  integrations: {
    INTERCOM: {
      lookup: 'phone'
    }
  }
});

Troubleshooting

FAQ

Does RudderStack support Intercom’s push notification and deep linking features?

None of the RudderStack SDKs support push notifications and deep linking features currently. See Intercom documentation for more information on configuring these features for your project.

What happens if both userId or email are missing in the identify / track calls sent to Intercom?

For both identify and track calls, either userId or email is a mandatory field. In case both these fields are missing, RudderStack will drop the event.

It is highly recommended to toggle on the Send AnonymousId as Secondary UserId setting in your RudderStack dashboard to avoid any event loss in such a scenario.

Questions? Contact us by email or on Slack