Broadcasts run against your Intercom contacts, so the first requirement is a connected Intercom workspace. If you haven’t added one yet, connect it from the Connected Workspaces page before starting a broadcast.

Note: Broadcasts are currently available for Intercom-connected workspaces. The Intercom Workspace dropdown on the broadcast creation wizard only lists workspaces of that type.

Inside your Intercom workspace, you need at least one channel that can send broadcasts:

When you pick a workspace in step 1 of the wizard, the Broadcast Channel dropdown is populated from that workspace. If no SMS or WhatsApp channels are connected yet, you’ll see the warning: “This workspace has no SMS or WhatsApp channels connected. Please connect a broadcast-capable channel first.” Connect a channel from the workspace’s channel list and then return to the broadcast wizard.

Sending a broadcast requires an active subscription. On the final review step, if your account isn’t on a paid plan you’ll see a “Subscription Required” warning: “You need to subscribe to one of our plans to send broadcasts.” Both the Save Draft and Set Live buttons stay disabled until you subscribe.

You can still build the broadcast up to the review step without a subscription; you just can’t save or activate it.

Broadcasts reach contacts by SMS or WhatsApp, so matching contacts need a phone number stored in Intercom. Contacts without a phone number are excluded automatically before the broadcast goes live. Octopods also removes duplicates and invalid phone numbers during the final send — that’s why the match preview on step 2 shows an estimated count.

A single broadcast can target a maximum of 10,000 contacts. If your filters match more than that, step 2 of the wizard shows “Too many contacts” with the note: “Your matching contacts exceeded the maximum number of 10,000 contacts. Rebuild your filters to target fewer contacts and try again.” You’ll need to narrow your filters — for example, by targeting a specific tag, segment, or location — before you can proceed.

WhatsApp broadcasts can only use templates that WhatsApp has already approved. You cannot compose a free-form WhatsApp message in a broadcast. The Select Template dropdown in step 3 is populated from the templates registered and approved on your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA).

Important: Submit and get your WhatsApp template approved before you start the broadcast wizard. If the dropdown is empty, check your template library to confirm that at least one template is in an approved state.

If your template includes a header image, video, or document, have the media file or its public URL ready — you’ll upload or link to it in step 3.

Before opening the broadcast wizard, confirm each of these: