Test workspaces are Intercom accounts that allow you to test features safely. You can enable a test workspace here.
Many customers like to do this as part of installing Intercom to ensure messages, settings, and processes work as expected before implementing them in their main workspace.
Check our plans and pricing to add this to your subscription.
If you require an additional workspace to be used in production, you'll need to set this up as a separate subscription.
You won't be able to add any individuals who are not part of your main workspace.
Why is it helpful?
It's great for getting familiar with how Intercom works.
It allows you to sanity check your user data to see that it's doing what it should.
Some people like to get comfortable with sending test messages first, before contacting their real customers. Setting up a test workspace can be helpful for this because it lets you test your auto messages to make sure that they are sending as expected.
You should use the test workspace as an opportunity to test any custom attributes that you're thinking of sending to Intercom.
What you need to know about test workspaces
Test workspaces are completely separate workspaces with separate data, conversations, messages, etc. You can use Test workspaces to send real messages to users.
Your test workspace's products are inherited from your main workspace (e.g. if your main workspace doesn't have access to the Help Desk product, your test workspace won't either).
Teammates and their permissions are inherited from the main workspace as well. You can't invite teammates to your test workspace, or change existing teammates permissions for test workspaces only. To invite new teammates or change teammate permissions, you have to use your main workspace.
If you delete a test workspace it will erase all data within it and cannot be undone.
Note: It's not possible to migrate data (messages, users, articles etc) from a test workspace to your live workspace.
So, here's how to do it:
Step 1:
Go to your settings.
Step 2:
You'll then be directed to your General Settings screen where you need to tick the box next to 'Test Workspace', and click Save.
Step 3
You'll receive a confirmation message at the top of the screen and your test workspace ID (App ID) will be displayed next to the 'Test Workspace' check box that you selected, as shown below.
Step 4
Make sure to add the Intercom snippet to your non-prod environment. When you do, your test workspace will inherit the messaging abilities of your production workspace in Intercom but it will have its own workspace id (app ID), to keep data separate.
You need to make sure to update your Intercom settings so that the app_id field has the correct value based on the environment that your site/app is running in. If you're using identity verification, you'll need to go into your setup guide to get the new API secret for your test workspace.
And... you're done!
To find your test workspace hover over your avatar, then hover over your real workspace and you'll see the test workspace you've created.
Ready to start testing Intercom?
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