Facebook app

How to manage your Facebook conversations in Intercom.

Beth-Ann Sher avatar
Written by Beth-Ann Sher
Updated this week

With certain Intercom plans, you can easily integrate with Facebook in just a few clicks. 

  • We’ll route messages from Facebook to Inbox in Intercom, keeping all of your customer communication in one place. 

  • You can read, manage and respond to all private messages you receive directly from your team inbox. 

You need to be an admin of the Facebook page you wish to integrate with Intercom.


How to integrate with Facebook 

Sign into Intercom and go to your app store. Search for the Facebook app and click ‘Install now'. Then, click 'Connect to Facebook' to add a page:

After you've installed the Facebook app, check your Facebook Business integrations settings and ensure that Intercom appears in your list of active business integrations.

Now, anytime someone sends you a private Facebook message, it will appear in your Intercom team inbox and can be easily identified by the Facebook icon below the message.

How Facebook messages work 

  • Only private Facebook messages will get sent to your team inbox. If someone posts a Facebook message on your wall it won’t appear in your team inbox. 

  • When someone sends a message to your company Facebook page they will get designated as a lead in Intercom. You’ll only be able to see that person’s Facebook name and profile picture. We recommend asking for their email and adding it to their profile. 

  • We support images, attachments, audio, videos, location sharing, stickers, GIFs, and bot messages sent from Facebook.

  • The Facebook app does not sync conversations in real-time, there can be a 10 minute delay.

  • If a conversation from Facebook is replied to by a customer after more than 5 days since the conversation was closed, it will be treated as a brand new conversation in Intercom.

Which Intercom features work with Facebook messages

  • You can reply quickly to Facebook messages using macros from the Inbox.

  • Using the trigger After a customer sends their first message, you can trigger a Custom Bot to deflect, triage and route Facebook messages more efficiently.

  • Messenger apps currently do not work in conversations from Facebook.

  • Currently, only text and image replies are supported when sending from Intercom to Facebook.

  • Operator will set reply expectations in new conversations started from Facebook.

  • In conversations from Facebook, CSAT ratings are collected by asking the customer for a text response. They can reply with a number or emoji:

Teammate experience

Counting messages as new conversations

  • Teammates will see a new Facebook conversation if the conversation has been closed for 5+ days and receives a new end user message.

  • Previous Facebook conversations with the end user will be accessible in the ‘Recent conversations’ or on the user’s profile.

  • Teammates will only be able to respond to the most recent conversation with the end user. For previous conversations, they’ll see a message in the composer telling them responses must be sent from the most recent conversation:

Pro tip from the Intercom Community forum:

Q. Can I assign conversations based on the Facebook page from which they were started? - Johan

A. Yes, you can assign conversations based on the Page they came from.

Every message that comes through Facebook has a small icon, showing the URL, which you can use with Inbox Rules. - Roy


Troubleshooting the Facebook app

Can't reply to some conversations?

If the user's last message in a Facebook conversation is from more than 7 days ago, you'll see this warning in your inbox:

If the user has interacted with your page in the last 7 days, your reply will send as expected. If they have not, you will see a note that the message couldn't be sent. In these cases, you can still reply to the conversation directly from Facebook. 

Pro tip: Check your notification settings to make sure you never miss a new conversation.

Conversations not syncing?

If your Facebook conversations aren't syncing with Intercom, this may be due to a change in your Facebook Page's permissions. You'll see this message on your app settings page:

"Facebook is changing the permissions required for your Pages to work with Intercom. You can fix this by clicking the 'Reconnect to Facebook' button. Do this by 31 December to avoid disruption to your conversations."

You'll also see "Issue Detected" next to any affected pages:

To resolve this issue, just click "Reconnect to Facebook" below your list of Facebook pages:

Note: Reinstalling or uninstalling the app does not help here, you should always try and reconnect first to re-authorize access to Facebook 👍

When reconnecting, ensure that a checkbox beside all pages you want to connect are ticked and that all permissions are allowed:

After reconnecting to Facebook, you'll need to remove any connected Facebook pages:

Then, reconnect each of your pages by clicking 'Connect page':

Could not link Intercom to Facebook error

This indicates that Facebook is having connection troubles. There is unfortunately nothing we as Intercom can do, as this is on Facebook’s side. In these cases its best to try it again in a few minutes or at some later time.

Can't connect to Facebook?

If you encounter a 'Check Admin Permissions' error when connecting to Facebook, double check that you're an Admin on the Facebook Page that you're trying to connect. 👌 


Uninstall the Facebook app

If you have connected more than one Facebook page, you can disconnect the integration and delete all of the Facebook pages you have connected. Just remove Intercom from your installed apps in your Facebook integration settings.


FAQ

Will my Admin reply show in Intercom if I reply using Facebook?

Yes, it will only show up when the user next replies or when our Facebook poller pulls the next update.

What information do we get on the user? Can I get their email or other data?

  • We currently only get name and a user id (format: FACEBOOK_ID@facebook.com).

  • User_ID doesn't show in lead profile, only on lead list.

  • It is not currently possible for Intercom to merge Facebook leads or users into actual Intercom users.

Cannot See Message Button on Facebook Page

  • On Facebook side, enable Messaging in the Page's Settings > General > Messages.

  • View page as a personal profile

How to find Facebook Leads in Intercom

  • Filter users by User ID contains facebook

  • The number actually indicates the Facebook ID of the user and you can visit their profile via https://facebook.com/FACEBOOK_ID

Many Facebook conversations in Intercom reopened without any user reply: only shows Facebook messages

  • Facebook broadcast messages currently reopen conversations so if admins use a 3rd party tool or Facebook to send broadcast messages to all their customers it can cause messages to reopen in Intercom.

I have a Facebook Page connected but I can't see any listed in the Facebook integration settings. Where has it gone?

Once you click on the 'Connect to Facebook' button you will see your pages listed.

Can I connect a Facebook Page to more than one workspace in Intercom?

We don't support this. If a page is connected in more than one workspace, messages will only be sent and received in one of them.

Is the time that's shown on a Facebook message the time that the customer sent the message, or the time that it was received by Intercom?

The time on each message is the time that the customer sent the message.

I am seeing "Could not link Intercom to Facebook error"

If you're seeing this error, this means Facebook/Meta is having some connection issues. This is outside of our control and we encourage you to wait a few minutes and then try again.

A good troubleshooting step is also to try connect via browser incognito window to rule out any caching issues.


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