{"id":9919,"date":"2016-07-21T09:23:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T16:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.intercom.io\/?p=9919"},"modified":"2020-07-30T12:59:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T11:59:19","slug":"making-messaging-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the messenger: making messaging human"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"opening_paragraph\">The first wave of the internet was deeply impersonal. It enabled immediacy, scale, and access.<\/p>\n<p>But anonymity ruled \u2013 it made conversations transactional and disposable. If you wanted to get in touch with a business, offline was usually a far better route than online.<\/p>\n<p class=\"quote\">With Intercom, you\u2019re no longer just a random support rep \u2013 you\u2019re a\u00a0person<\/p>\n<p>At Intercom, we\u2019re trying to change that. We want to make internet business personal. Messaging is a fundamental part of this. It allows us to express some of the richness that exists in real life, but with all the scale that technology enables.<\/p>\n<p>Our previous messenger started us down this road, letting you and your customers have real conversations inside your app. And our latest version pushes the mission forward on all fronts.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"profiles-for-real-people\">Profiles for real people<\/h2>\n<p>One of our goals with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/messenger?utm_campaign=mv3-announcement&amp;utm_content=brians-post&amp;utm_medium=blog-post&amp;utm_source=inside0intercom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">our new messenger<\/a> was to give end-users (our customers\u2019 customers) the best messaging experience around. And we believe the best experience is a personal one.<\/p>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/fast.wistia.com\/embed\/medias\/2ovcrd847m.jsonp\" async><\/script><script src=\"\/\/fast.wistia.com\/assets\/external\/E-v1.js\" async><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"wistia_responsive_padding\" style=\"padding: 56.25% 0 0 0; position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"wistia_responsive_wrapper\" style=\"height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;\">\n<div class=\"wistia_embed wistia_async_2ovcrd847m videoFoam=true&amp;autoPlay=true\" style=\"height: 100%; width: 100%;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>New users of your product don&#8217;t know you \u2013 yet. But by sharing things as simple as your real name, a photo, and what you do in your company, they quickly get to know and trust you. Your profile is designed to build trust between you and your customers, to get your customers talking more easily, and more personally.<\/p>\n<h3>Putting a face to a name<\/h3>\n<p>Face and name perception has played a central role for social interaction for millions of years.<br \/>\nThis isn\u2019t just pseudo-psychology. When we user tested our messenger, they kept repeating the first names of the people they were messaging, as if they really knew them. \u201c<em>As Daniel was just telling me there<\/em>.\u201d \u201c<em>Oh, Daniel\u2019s replied to me now, that\u2019s good<\/em>.\u201d \u201c<em>If I had a problem I\u2019d just ask Daniel<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"small\" src=\"https:\/\/intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Screen-Shot-2016-07-21-at-4.50.31-PM.png\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s why we&#8217;ve put names and faces front and center throughout the messenger, even in notifications. With Intercom, you&#8217;re no longer just a random support rep \u2013 you&#8217;re a person.<\/p>\n<h3>When names and faces aren\u2019t enough<\/h3>\n<p>The problem is names and faces are easy to fake. Advertising has long taken advantage of our brains\u2019 magnetic pull to faces. It\u2019s no wonder people we\u2019ve talked to are suspicious the people in business chat apps are who they claim to be.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve good reason to be suspicious. Plenty of chat apps have faces that almost certainly are fake, or look suspiciously like stock photos.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"small\" src=\"https:\/\/intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/live_chat_bad.png\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We witnessed this distrust first hand. At one of our own events, someone reached out through our own messenger to say he&#8217;d lost his ticket, and asking could it be replaced. One of our team, Tom, replied, and worked through the details to get him sorted.<\/p>\n<p>Later at the event, when the attendee was relaying the story to another of our colleagues, they offhandedly mentioned that this \u201cTom\u201d must have been a fake name and profile. Turns out Tom was actually standing right behind him.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"a-job-title-means-a-lot-more-than-you-think\">A job title means a lot more than you think<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s too easy for businesses to hide behind the veil of anonymity when it suits them. But it almost never suits the other person. Full disclosure, our old messenger was guilty of this too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"quote quote-left\">Design for the world you\u2019d like to live in.<\/p>\n<p>Take the simple job title we\u2019ve added to each profile. Before we put this in, I\u2019ve seen conversations from colleagues at Intercom saying \u201c<em>Thanks for your suggestion, I\u2019ll pass that on to the product team<\/em>\u201d. Even though <em>they\u2019re on the product team<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>These sort of white lies might seem unimportant. But over time, they erode the trust you\u2019re customers have placed in you. It\u2019s often said you should design for the world you\u2019d like to live in. So we designed the messenger to force ourselves, and our customers, to be more real.<\/p>\n<p>Real names, real faces and real job titles force us to be more transparent. Knowing that you\u2019re really talking to the founder who started the company, the engineer who builds the product, or the product manager who\u2019s responsible for the roadmap has a massive impact on your messaging experience. But only if it\u2019s real; only if you can trust it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Paul-cambell-3.png\" alt=\" class=\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"the-where-and-the-when-matter\">The where and the when matter<\/h2>\n<p>One of the most important ways to build in authenticity into a messenger is with system text, such as our active status label. Crucially, these can\u2019t be changed.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"small\" src=\"https:\/\/intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Group-2.png\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This has proved controversial with some of our customers. If they hadn\u2019t been active recently, they didn\u2019t want the whole world knowing about it. But even then this label provides value. It:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>makes the system feel live by giving the messenger a heartbeat.<\/li>\n<li>helps communicate that this is an asynchronous system \u2013 if they\u2019re not around, you\u2019re unlikely to get an immediate reply.<\/li>\n<li>adds a dose of reality \u2013 people are not always available to talk.<\/li>\n<li>builds trust \u2013 it\u2019s intentionally written to sound like system-generated text, because you can\u2019t fake this, or remove it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The same goes for location and local time \u2013 it\u2019s system text you can\u2019t change. These little details might seem irrelevant at first. Does a customer really need to know the location I\u2019m in? But that misses the point. They don\u2019t need to know it, but it gives the user a conviction that you\u2019re a real person, in a real timezone, in a real place. Location and time are simple data points that resonate.<\/p>\n<p>They can even add a bit of empathy to the conversation: \u201c<em>Oh \u2013 it\u2019s nearly midnight for you! Why don\u2019t we pick this conversation up tomorrow<\/em> ?\u201d. Other times, it\u2019s something that can be the start of a natural, human conversation. \u201c<em>Oh, you\u2019re from Chicago. I was just there last weekend!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The same goes for the Twitter and LinkedIn icons we\u2019ve added to each profile. The goal isn\u2019t to get you more followers, or god forbid, more LinkedIn messages, but to help establish that you\u2019re legit. When I click on Paul from Tito, I see his Twitter profile. He\u2019s a real person in a real place, not just a nameless face hiding behind a conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Taken alone, these small details may seem unimportant. But assembled together, they subtly change the conversation for the better.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s critical that the person seems authentic. And to do that we need to be almost uncomfortably transparent. We genuinely believe these sort of transparent conversations between customers and a business are the future, even if it feels a little bit uncomfortable at first.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"end-users-dont-think-they-care-until-they-do\">End users don&#8217;t think they care. Until they do.<\/h2>\n<p>You may be asking yourself \u2013 do users really care about this level of detail in a messaging experience?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a fair question. We&#8217;re conditioned to accept anonymity from businesses. When we tested our messenger with customers, no one expected to see this information. At first we were concerned by this \u2013 had we built the digital equivalent of a waiter interrupting you with an over-eager smile and saying \u201c<em>Hi! My name\u2019s Julien and I\u2019ll be your server today!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But then we saw how people started to behave once they had seen it. As the user tests went on, we\u2019d watch people try to click for profiles in places we hadn\u2019t even yet built them. Once they saw a profile for one teammate, they wanted to see them for everyone. It was amazing how quickly the profiles had moved from being an unnecessary extra to becoming a component expected everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because at our core we all crave connection, even if it\u2019s lightweight, transient connections.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">It makes me happy when your customer success team is suddenly getting smiles and hugs from our customers simply because of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intercom\">@intercom<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Teddy Zetterlund (@teddyzetterlund) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/teddyzetterlund\/status\/702050222256615424\">February 23, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Years of experience building Intercom has taught us that once those connections are made, customers are more likely to trust you, to be forgiving when things go wrong, and ultimately to reward you with loyalty. With our new messenger, we\u2019re betting big on personal.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s note: This is the second of five posts explaining the thinking behind our new Messenger.<\/p>\n<p>Part 1: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/new-intercom-messenger\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reinventing messaging all over again<\/a><br \/>\nPart 3: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/behind-messenger-right-kind-disruption\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The right kind of disruption<\/a><br \/>\nPart 4: <a href=\"https:\/\/intercom.com\/blog\/behind-messenger-building-cross-platform-product\/\">Building a cross-platform product<\/a><br \/>\nPart 5: <a href=\"https:\/\/intercom.com\/blog\/closing-gap-product-analytics\/\">Closing the gap between data and product development<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first wave of the internet was deeply impersonal. It enabled immediacy, scale, and access. But anonymity ruled \u2013 it made conversations transactional and disposable. If you wanted to get in touch with a business, offline&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":9985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"category":[5],"tags":[148,200,62],"coauthors":[432],"class_list":["post-9919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-product-and-design","tag-customers","tag-messaging","tag-product-management"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Behind the messenger: making messaging human - The Intercom Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The first wave of the internet was deeply impersonal. In our new messenger, we&#039;ve tried the exact opposite. We&#039;ve put humans front and center.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behind the messenger: making messaging human\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The first wave of the internet was deeply impersonal. In our new messenger, we&#039;ve tried the exact opposite. We&#039;ve put humans front and center.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Intercom Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intercominc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-21T16:23:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-30T11:59:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Mv3_Post_02-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1968\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"932\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brian Donohue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@brian_donohue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@intercom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brian Donohue\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/making-messaging-human\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/making-messaging-human\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brian Donohue\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e5c80d2b7f38ee19419b225376b0ad74\"},\"headline\":\"Behind the messenger: making messaging human\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-21T16:23:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-30T11:59:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/making-messaging-human\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1413,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/making-messaging-human\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/07\\\/Mv3_Post_02-2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"customers\",\"messaging\",\"product management\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Product &amp; Design\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/making-messaging-human\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/making-messaging-human\\\/\",\"name\":\"Behind the messenger: making messaging human - The Intercom Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/making-messaging-human\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/making-messaging-human\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/07\\\/Mv3_Post_02-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-21T16:23:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-30T11:59:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"The first wave of the internet was deeply impersonal. In our new messenger, we've tried the exact opposite. We've put humans front and center.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/making-messaging-human\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/making-messaging-human\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/07\\\/Mv3_Post_02-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/07\\\/Mv3_Post_02-2.jpg\",\"width\":1968,\"height\":932},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Intercom Blog\",\"description\":\"Articles and Podcasts on Customer Service, AI and Automation, Product, and more\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Intercom Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/08\\\/Intercom-logo-sq-black-trans.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/08\\\/Intercom-logo-sq-black-trans.png\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"The Intercom Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/intercominc\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/intercom\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/intercom\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/2491343\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pinterest.ie\\\/intercom\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCJG0MvLP03kyzzAkD-w98aQ\",\"https:\\\/\\\/en.wikipedia.org\\\/wiki\\\/Intercom_(company)\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e5c80d2b7f38ee19419b225376b0ad74\",\"name\":\"Brian Donohue\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e934595dabf8323f38bd151d4ab898afa497041d72ea6940e4d4d4a053a03450?s=96&d=mm&r=pgc1588f5f029173cd7fcbd9962f2a9aca\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e934595dabf8323f38bd151d4ab898afa497041d72ea6940e4d4d4a053a03450?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e934595dabf8323f38bd151d4ab898afa497041d72ea6940e4d4d4a053a03450?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Brian Donohue\"},\"description\":\"Brian is a VP of Product at Intercom. He's well-versed in leading teams in the product and design world \u2013 previously, he was a Director of Design at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Director of Consulting at Each&amp;Other.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.io\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/brian-donohue-2450192\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/brian_donohue\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/brian_donohue\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Behind the messenger: making messaging human - The Intercom Blog","description":"The first wave of the internet was deeply impersonal. In our new messenger, we've tried the exact opposite. We've put humans front and center.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Behind the messenger: making messaging human","og_description":"The first wave of the internet was deeply impersonal. In our new messenger, we've tried the exact opposite. We've put humans front and center.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/","og_site_name":"The Intercom Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intercominc","article_published_time":"2016-07-21T16:23:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-07-30T11:59:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1968,"height":932,"url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Mv3_Post_02-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Brian Donohue","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@brian_donohue","twitter_site":"@intercom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brian Donohue","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/"},"author":{"name":"Brian Donohue","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e5c80d2b7f38ee19419b225376b0ad74"},"headline":"Behind the messenger: making messaging human","datePublished":"2016-07-21T16:23:38+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-30T11:59:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/"},"wordCount":1413,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Mv3_Post_02-2.jpg","keywords":["customers","messaging","product management"],"articleSection":["Product &amp; Design"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/","url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/","name":"Behind the messenger: making messaging human - The Intercom Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Mv3_Post_02-2.jpg","datePublished":"2016-07-21T16:23:38+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-30T11:59:19+00:00","description":"The first wave of the internet was deeply impersonal. In our new messenger, we've tried the exact opposite. We've put humans front and center.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/making-messaging-human\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Mv3_Post_02-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Mv3_Post_02-2.jpg","width":1968,"height":932},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/","name":"The Intercom Blog","description":"Articles and Podcasts on Customer Service, AI and Automation, Product, and more","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Intercom Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Intercom-logo-sq-black-trans.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Intercom-logo-sq-black-trans.png","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"The Intercom Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intercominc","https:\/\/x.com\/intercom","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/intercom\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/2491343","https:\/\/www.pinterest.ie\/intercom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCJG0MvLP03kyzzAkD-w98aQ","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Intercom_(company)"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e5c80d2b7f38ee19419b225376b0ad74","name":"Brian Donohue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e934595dabf8323f38bd151d4ab898afa497041d72ea6940e4d4d4a053a03450?s=96&d=mm&r=pgc1588f5f029173cd7fcbd9962f2a9aca","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e934595dabf8323f38bd151d4ab898afa497041d72ea6940e4d4d4a053a03450?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e934595dabf8323f38bd151d4ab898afa497041d72ea6940e4d4d4a053a03450?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"Brian Donohue"},"description":"Brian is a VP of Product at Intercom. He's well-versed in leading teams in the product and design world \u2013 previously, he was a Director of Design at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Director of Consulting at Each&amp;Other.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.intercom.io","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/brian-donohue-2450192\/","https:\/\/x.com\/brian_donohue"],"url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/author\/brian_donohue\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Mv3_Post_02-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category?post=9919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9919"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}