The merge rule
Intercom only allows merges in one direction: a Lead merges into a User. You cannot merge two Users, two Leads, or a User into a Lead. If you try, Octopods shows the message: “We can only merge a contact with a role of lead into a contact with a role of user. You must select another lead to merge into the user.”
If the two records you have selected are the same contact, Octopods shows: “You can not merge this lead with itself. You must select another user/lead to merge with.”
Merging from the Octopods Inbox App
Open any Intercom conversation where the contact is a Lead. In the Octopods panel in the conversation sidebar, click Merge with existing user. The panel walks you through selecting the target User and confirming the merge. When it finishes you will see: “Your lead has been merged with an existing contact!”
Merging from the Reach browser extension
If you use the Reach browser extension alongside Intercom, open the side panel on a Lead and start the merge wizard. The wizard guides you through selecting the primary contact, searching for the duplicate, comparing fields side-by-side, and confirming. A success screen confirms the result.
Merging directly in Intercom
You can also trigger a merge from Intercom’s own contact interface using Intercom’s built-in merge action. Octopods listens for Intercom’s merge event and reconciles its own records automatically — no extra step is needed on the Octopods side.
Note: All three paths end with the same result — the Lead is absorbed into the User, and Octopods updates its own records so future messages route to the surviving User.
What happens after a merge
Regardless of which path you use, once the merge succeeds:
Conversation history from the Lead is consolidated onto the User.
Any Custom Data Attributes (CDAs) that Octopods set on the Lead — for example, the customer’s Telegram ID or Instagram ID — are preserved on the surviving User so future messages from the same channel still find the right contact.
Octopods re-points its internal channel records at the surviving User so the next inbound message on that channel is delivered to the merged User’s Intercom profile, not a fresh duplicate.
Troubleshooting
“We can not find your lead!” — The Lead record is no longer in Intercom. Close the panel, reopen the conversation, and start the merge again.
“We can not find your user!” — The User you selected to merge into is no longer available. Search for a different target User.
The merge succeeded but the old conversation thread is empty. Intercom moves the conversation history to the surviving contact. Open the User’s profile to find the complete history there.
What’s next