A customer platform is the tool where your team manages customer conversations day to day. Octopods plugs into that tool instead of replacing it. Inbound messages from any channel you connect in Octopods become conversations in your customer platform’s inbox, and replies sent from there are delivered back to the customer on the original channel.

Each Octopods workspace connects to exactly one customer platform account. If your team uses both Intercom and HubSpot, you can create one workspace for each.

When you connect Octopods to Intercom, messages from your connected channels appear in the Intercom Inbox as normal conversations. Your team replies from Intercom, and replies are delivered back to the customer on their original channel — WhatsApp, SMS, Telegram, and so on.

Intercom is Octopods’ most comprehensive integration and gives you access to the full catalog of supported messaging channels, including regional channels like LINE, WeChat, Viber, and Viber Business Messages.

You need Intercom admin access to connect a workspace, because the integration uses Intercom’s authorization flow.

When you connect Octopods to HubSpot, each messaging channel is exposed inside HubSpot as a custom channel. Inbound messages land in the HubSpot inbox you select during setup, and replies flow back to the customer on the original channel. Conversations are threaded against the matching HubSpot contact so your team has full context when they reply.

HubSpot workspaces support a focused subset of channels: WhatsApp (Cloud API), Twilio SMS, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Slack, and TikTok.

You need HubSpot admin access to connect a portal, because the integration authorizes access to your conversations, contacts, and custom channels.

An Octopods workspace has a one-to-one relationship with a customer platform account:

You can create multiple Octopods workspaces under the same account if you need to connect several Intercom workspaces or HubSpot portals. Each workspace keeps its own set of channels and settings, so teams working on different products or brands can stay isolated.

The right choice is usually the customer platform your team already uses, because Octopods is designed to add omnichannel messaging on top of an existing inbox rather than replace it. If you already run support in Intercom, connect Intercom. If your team lives in HubSpot, connect HubSpot. If you use both, you can connect both.

Because Intercom supports a larger channel catalog, some regional channels (such as LINE, WeChat, and Viber) are only available on Intercom workspaces. If you need one of these channels, Intercom is the platform to use.