What association syncing does
When you enable association syncing on a channel, Octopods attaches each incoming conversation to:
The companies the messaging contact is associated with in HubSpot.
The deals the messaging contact is associated with in HubSpot.
The result is that a conversation on WhatsApp or Instagram appears not only on the contact record, but also in the activity timeline of every company and deal that contact belongs to. Account owners and sales reps see messaging activity without needing to click into individual contacts.
When to turn it on
Association syncing is useful if:
You use HubSpot’s CRM heavily and want full activity history on company and deal records.
Your account management or sales team works primarily from company and deal views.
You want HubSpot reports on companies or deals to include messaging activity.
If you only use HubSpot’s inbox and don’t rely on company or deal records, you can leave this off.
Where the setting lives
Association syncing is configured per channel.
Sign in to Octopods and open your HubSpot workspace.
Open the channel you want to configure.
Scroll to the Associate HubSpot Conversation section.
Turn association syncing on
Association syncing needs extra HubSpot permissions beyond the ones granted at initial connection. The first time you set it up, Octopods prompts you to reconnect HubSpot so the extra scopes can be approved.
In the Associate HubSpot Conversation section, look for the Additional Permissions Required warning.
Click Reconnect HubSpot. You’ll be sent to HubSpot’s authorization page.
Approve the additional permissions HubSpot lists — specifically, access to companies and deals.
Return to Octopods. The section now displays an Association Syncing Enabled confirmation: “We will now sync your HubSpot custom channel conversation with HubSpot records.”
From this point on, every new conversation on the channel is associated with the contact’s related companies and deals as they arrive.
What gets associated
When a message creates or continues a conversation, Octopods:
Resolves the sender to a HubSpot contact (see How Contacts Work in HubSpot).
Fetches the companies and deals currently associated with that contact in HubSpot.
Links the Octopods-managed conversation to each of those records.
Because the associations are created through HubSpot’s standard CRM APIs, they behave exactly like associations created by any other HubSpot tool: they appear in company and deal timelines, they respect HubSpot’s association-type definitions, and they can be reported on via HubSpot’s analytics.
What association syncing does not do
It does not create companies or deals. Octopods only links to records that already exist in HubSpot.
It does not change the contact-level conversation — the primary link is still between the conversation and the contact.
It does not retroactively associate past conversations. Only conversations created or updated after you enable the feature are associated.
If the permissions warning persists
If you re-authorize and still see the Additional Permissions Required warning, the most common cause is that the HubSpot user who approved the reconnection doesn’t have access to companies or deals in the portal.
Ask a HubSpot admin to reconnect the integration from a user account that has full CRM access, and the warning will clear once the correct scopes are granted.
Important: Only workspace admins can enable association syncing and complete the reauthorization step.
What’s next