What broadcasts are for
A broadcast is the right tool when you need to reach many people at once with the same message. Instead of opening one conversation at a time, you build a filter that selects the contacts you want to reach, compose the message once, and Octopods delivers it to every matching contact over their channel.
Broadcasts are designed for outbound, transactional, and campaign-style messaging — not for everyday one-to-one replies. If you need to answer an inbound conversation, do that from your Intercom inbox as usual.
Common use cases
Announcements. A product update, policy change, or important notice your entire audience needs to know.
Promotions. A limited-time offer, seasonal sale, or exclusive discount for a segment of customers.
Reminders. Appointment confirmations, payment due notices, or event check-in prompts.
Re-engagement. A friendly nudge to contacts you haven’t heard from in a while.
Transactional notifications. Order updates, shipping confirmations, or account alerts that go to a filtered subset of your contacts.
Where broadcasts run
Broadcasts currently run on Intercom-connected workspaces. From the Broadcasts page you’ll see the subtitle “Send bulk messages to your Intercom contacts via SMS or WhatsApp.” The feature uses your Intercom contacts, tags, segments, and attributes as the source of truth for filtering.
You can send a broadcast over:
An SMS channel (Twilio)
A WhatsApp channel, using a pre-approved WhatsApp template
SMS broadcasts are free-form text. WhatsApp broadcasts must use a template that has been approved by WhatsApp in advance — the broadcast composer lets you pick the template and fill its variables.
Broadcast states
Every broadcast moves through a small set of states. The state is shown as a colored badge on the broadcasts list and on the broadcast detail page.
Draft. The broadcast has been saved but not yet sent. You can edit its filters, message, or audience — or delete it entirely.
Pending. You’ve confirmed the broadcast and Octopods is preparing to send. The detail page shows the note “Broadcast is being processed. It usually takes up to 5 minutes before setting to live.”
Live. The broadcast is actively sending messages. Delivery statistics (Total, Succeeded, Pending, Failed) appear on the detail page as messages go out.
Failed. The broadcast could not be sent. The most common cause is exceeding the maximum audience size — the detail page will show “Broadcast has failed due to reaching maximum contact count.”
What a broadcast includes
When you build a broadcast, you’ll provide four things:
A name that helps you identify the broadcast later — for example, “Holiday Sale Campaign”.
The Intercom workspace and channel to send from.
A set of filters that describe who receives the message (Intercom tags, segments, contact attributes).
The message content — either an SMS body or a WhatsApp template with variables filled in.
Once you activate the broadcast, Octopods delivers the message to every matching contact and reports on which sends succeeded and which failed.
Cost
Broadcasts created in Octopods today carry no extra charge. The messages they send count towards your channel’s regular messaging limits, just like any other outbound message.
What’s next
See the Channels section for setup guides on SMS and WhatsApp