What the extension does
The extension is an Octopods app that runs inside Intercom’s conversation and contact sidebars. From the sidebar, you can:
Pick a connected channel to send from (such as SMS or WhatsApp).
Compose a proactive message to the contact you’re viewing in Intercom — for example, an outbound WhatsApp template or an SMS — without leaving the Intercom conversation.
Cancel a draft at any point during the flow.
The extension is the in-Intercom counterpart to the proactive messaging you can do from Octopods directly. The advantage is that your team stays in Intercom: the contact’s history, attributes, and the conversation they’re working on are right there alongside the message they’re sending.
Before you begin
To use the extension you need:
Octopods admin role, or a role with permission to send proactive messages.
An Intercom workspace already connected to your Octopods account.
At least one channel that supports proactive messaging connected inside the Intercom workspace — typically SMS, WhatsApp, or Viber Business Messages (VBM).
Access to the same workspace in Intercom so you can see the conversation or contact you want to message.
If you haven’t connected your Intercom workspace yet, see Connecting an Intercom Workspace.
Step 1: Add the Octopods app inside Intercom
Add the Octopods app to your Intercom workspace from Intercom’s app directory. Once installed, the Octopods app appears in the Intercom Inbox sidebar when you open a conversation, and on the contact sidebar when you open a contact.
Step 2: Open the extension
The Octopods app inside Intercom identifies your workspace and your admin automatically using Intercom’s signed payload — there’s no separate authentication step to complete.
Step 3: Send a proactive message from Intercom
Once the extension is authenticated, sending a proactive message from a conversation or contact page in Intercom takes just a few clicks.
Open a conversation or contact in Intercom. The Octopods app sidebar shows the controls for sending a proactive message to that contact.
Click to start a new message. The extension shows the Choose channel screen with the heading “Choose channel” and the description “Select a channel to send a message from”.
Pick the channel you want to send from. The list shows your connected SMS, WhatsApp, and Viber Business Messages channels along with each channel’s identifier (phone number, bot handle, or similar).
For an SMS channel, type your message and send.
For a WhatsApp channel, pick a pre-approved template, fill in any variables the template needs, attach media if the template uses it, and send.
The message goes out to the customer on the chosen channel. It also appears as a conversation in Intercom so your team can follow up from the Inbox.
If you change your mind partway through, use Cancel in the extension to abandon the draft and return to the channel selection screen.
Channels you can send from in the extension
The extension is designed for proactive outbound messaging, so it surfaces the channels that support that pattern:
SMS — send a text message to the contact’s phone number. The contact replies the same way they’d reply to any SMS.
WhatsApp — send a pre-approved template. Outside the WhatsApp messaging window, only templates can be used; inside the window, free-form replies are supported through the Intercom Inbox conversation that follows.
Viber Business Messages (VBM) — send a Viber Business Messages template to the contact, where the contact has a Viber identifier.
Channels that aren’t typically used for outbound (such as inbound-only social channels) won’t appear in the channel picker.
What you can and can’t do from the extension
The extension is built around proactive sending. From the sidebar you can:
Choose a channel and recipient.
Compose and send an SMS or WhatsApp template.
Cancel an in-progress draft.
The extension is not where you read incoming conversations or write a normal reply — that work happens in the Intercom Inbox itself, where the conversation Octopods created from the proactive message will continue.
Common things that go wrong
You don’t see any channels in the picker. No channels in your Intercom workspace currently support proactive messaging, or none are connected. Open the Channels section in Octopods to add or check your channels.
The recipient doesn’t have a phone number on the contact. The extension requires a destination on the contact (a phone number for SMS or WhatsApp, or the equivalent identifier for other channels). Add the destination to the contact in Intercom, then refresh the extension.
A WhatsApp template won’t send. Confirm the template you’re using is approved and that you’ve filled in every required variable. Templates that aren’t approved can’t be sent, regardless of channel state.
The customer is outside the WhatsApp messaging window. WhatsApp restricts free-form messages outside the messaging window. Use a pre-approved template instead.
What’s next
See the Proactive Messaging section for proactive sending from Octopods directly
See the Channels section for setting up SMS, WhatsApp, and other channels that support proactive messaging
See the Templates section for managing the WhatsApp templates you can send from the extension