Install Reach: Get the browser extension from the Chrome Web Store.
How detection works
As you navigate inside Intercom, Reach watches for changes to the page you’re viewing. When it recognizes a page — a contact profile, a conversation, or a company record — it looks up the matching contact in your Octopods workspace and loads their information into the side panel.
Detection happens automatically. You do not need to click anything or refresh the side panel.
What Reach can detect
In Intercom, Reach detects:
Contact and Lead profiles — The person’s full profile loads in the side panel.
Conversations — The contact at the other end of the conversation loads, and the Synced conversation panel appears when the conversation is linked to Octopods.
Company profiles — Reach recognizes the company and shows any matched contacts.
Inbox views — Reach knows you’re in the inbox even before you’ve picked a conversation.
Other Intercom pages — The Context Strip reads CRM page, and you can use search to find a contact manually.
The Context Strip at the top of the side panel confirms what was detected — for example Contact #12345 · intercom or Conversation #56789 · intercom.
When multiple contacts match
Sometimes the CRM record you’re viewing matches more than one contact in Octopods — for example, if the same phone number is shared across two records, or if two leads share an email domain that resolves to the same profile. When that happens:
The contact card loads the first matching contact by default.
A [N] matches button appears on the right side of the contact card.
Click the button to open the contact picker. Each row shows the contact’s name, role, and key identifiers.
Select the correct contact. Reach reloads the side panel with that contact’s channels, history, and synced conversation.
Reach remembers your choice for the rest of the session on that CRM page, so switching away and back won’t undo it.
When no contact is detected
If Reach cannot match the current page to a contact, the Context Strip turns yellow and reads No contact detected. The side panel still works, but you’ll need to find the contact yourself:
Use the Search input to look up someone by name, phone number, or email address.
Or navigate back to a supported CRM page (a contact profile, a conversation, a deal) and Reach will pick them up automatically.
This state is normal when you’re on a CRM page Reach can’t map to a specific contact — for example a settings page, a dashboard, or a list view where no record is selected.
When you’re not on an Intercom tab
Open Reach on a tab that isn’t Intercom — your email, a document editor, any other website — and the side panel replaces the home view with the Unsupported tab notice:
Heading: Unsupported tab.
Message: Navigate to an Intercom tab to start messaging with Reach.
A SUPPORTED PLATFORMS section listing Intercom.
If you’re signed in and accidentally switch to a non-Intercom tab, click Go back to current workspace to return to the home screen of the workspace you were last active in.
Once you navigate back to Intercom, Reach resumes automatically.
Manually refreshing the detected context
Occasionally the CRM page changes in a way Reach doesn’t notice right away — for example if the underlying record is updated from another tab. To force Reach to re-read the current page:
Find the Refresh button on the right side of the green Context Strip.
Click it.
Reach re-detects the page and reloads the contact.
The refresh button only appears when a context is already detected. If the strip is showing No contact detected, navigate to a recognized CRM page instead.
How detection stays accurate
As you click through the CRM:
If you open a new contact, Reach picks up the change and reloads the side panel with the new person’s data.
If you navigate between workspaces, Reach switches to the correct workspace before loading the new contact. See Managing Multiple Workspaces for how this works.
If you navigate to a page Reach doesn’t recognize, the Context Strip falls back to CRM page or No contact detected, and any actions that require a contact are disabled.
You never have to tell Reach who you’re messaging — it follows your CRM context in the background.
What’s next