Use this article to manage SMS conversations directly from the Inbox — whether responding to inbound customer messages, sending outbound SMS to a contact, routing SMS to the right team, or choosing which phone number to send from.
Handling inbound SMS conversations
With 2-way SMS (two-way text messaging) enabled, any inbound SMS messages will either create a new conversation from the Inbox or be added to an existing open conversation. Using inbox workflows they’re already familiar with, teammates can handle SMS messages with ease.
Key things to know about SMS conversation behavior:
There can only ever be 1 SMS conversation open with a single customer at any time.
When a customer replies to an outbound SMS message, any existing SMS conversation is closed and a new conversation is started based on the reply.
When an inbound SMS is not the first reply to an outbound SMS:
If there is a conversation open or the customer’s last SMS conversation was closed less than 5 days ago, the SMS is added to that conversation (and reopened if necessary).
If there is no open conversation or the last open conversation was over 5 days ago, a new conversation is created.
Teammates can easily identify inbound SMS from the Inbox. Every message will have a mobile icon and be marked as an “SMS” conversation in the composer:
What content types can I send and receive via SMS?
SMS only supports certain content types and this changes slightly depending on whether a teammate is sending or receiving an SMS message. The table below shows you which content types are supported:
Content | Sending | Receiving |
Text | ✅ | ✅ |
Links | ✅ Must be full format URLs in plain text which will be converted to hyperlink styling by the customer’s phone. | ✅ |
Macros | ✅ Macros (saved message templates) are supported but any non-text elements or formatting from the macro is stripped. We recommend separate macros for SMS. | n/a |
Images | 🚫 Image sending is limited due to the additional costs incurred - if you need to send an image, we recommend sending a link to the image. | ✅ |
GIFs & Video | 🚫 | 🚫 |
Apps | 🚫 | 🚫 |
How SMS segments work
When an SMS message is too long to send as a single text, it's automatically split into multiple segments. This applies whether you're sending from the Inbox or via Outbound messaging.
Teammates can see how many characters they’ve used and how many segments their message will be before they send it:
These segments will be stitched back together into one single message by the customer’s phone.
Each segment adds to the cost of the message. Learn more about segment lengths here and find out how SMS pricing works.
How to route SMS messages to specific inboxes
With Workflows, you can automatically organize your SMS conversations and ensure they get assigned to the correct place. For example, you could route all inbound SMS messages to your Mobile Support team.
In the Workflow builder, create a new Workflow and set the trigger to Customer sends their first message.
Add a channel filter and select SMS so the Workflow only applies to SMS conversations. Create a separate Workflow for each channel if your team handles them differently.
Add an action to assign SMS conversations to a specific team or teammate inbox. For conditional routing — for example, by customer plan — use branching.
The screenshot below shows an example of branching — SMS conversations routed based on the customer's plan.
If your workspace has multiple SMS phone numbers, you can also route inbound SMS by which number the customer messaged. Every inbound SMS conversation automatically has the Workspace SMS phone number attribute set, recording which of your numbers received the message. Add this as a branch condition in your Workflow to route by number — for example, Channel = SMS AND Workspace SMS phone number = [your US number] to send all US number inbound messages to your US Support team inbox.
Once you’ve set up Workflow-based SMS routing, teammates can also create a custom Inbox View — a saved filter in their Inbox — to see all SMS conversations in one place.
How to send an outbound SMS from the Inbox
There may be times where you need to reach out to an individual user directly with an important request or message. Intercom’s outbound SMS messages from the Inbox makes it fast and easy to start a new SMS conversation, no matter where they are, without leaving the Inbox.
Here's how to send an SMS from the Inbox:
Choosing a phone number to send from
If your workspace has multiple SMS phone numbers set up for the same country, a phone number selector appears in the Inbox composer when you select SMS as the channel type (step 2 below). Choose the number you want to send from before writing your message. If you don't make a selection, Intercom automatically sends from the default number for that country.
Click Create new from the Inbox and select “Conversation”.
Select SMS as the channel type.
Search users and leads to message by name or email address. Note: You must search for an existing contact—you can't type a phone number directly to start a new SMS conversation.
Add an optional subject line. This subject line will be displayed in the Inbox to easily identify the conversation but won’t be shown to the user.
Enter your message. You can insert text, emojis and full links (include https:// to make links easy for customers to click) inside of your SMS message. Below the message you’ll see the number of characters as well as the number of SMS segments required to send your message.
Click Send. Your SMS message will be delivered directly to the user.
If the user doesn’t have a valid phone number or you don’t have SMS activated in the country that phone number is from, you won’t be able to start an SMS conversation with them.
Each segment adds to the cost of the message. Learn more about segment lengths here and find out how SMS pricing works.
You can only have one active SMS conversation open with a customer at a time. If one already exists when you try to send, choose one of two options:
Continue the existing conversation
Close it and start a new one with your message
If you start a new conversation, a note will be added to that conversation with a link to the old conversation:
A note will also be added to the old conversation with a link to the new conversation:
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