Use this article to start a new outbound conversation directly from your Intercom Inbox — whether you're reaching out proactively to a customer, contacting a third party like a vendor, or sending a message to multiple people at once. It covers channel selection, composing your message, CC/BCC rules, the Send separately option, and how to associate a company or view email metadata.
Intercom lets you start a new conversation with one or multiple contacts in your workspace, without leaving the Inbox. These conversations can be managed just like any other. You can snooze them, leave internal notes, and use Macros (saved message templates).
Note: This article is for teammates with Inbox access. Sending from a custom email address requires the Can send outbound emails from custom addresses permission.
How to start a new conversation
Click Create new from the Inbox menu and then select Conversation.
Select the channel you want to start a conversation on.
Learn more about starting a conversation on WhatsApp.
Note: If you select Chat, the message will send an in-app message as well as a push notification (if the customer is eligible to receive push notifications).
Choose who the message should be sent from.
As a default the email will be sent by you. If you have a custom sender address set up in your workspace, you can choose to send the new message from that address.
From the "Details" panel, you can also select who the conversation should be assigned to after your message has been sent.
Note: If your message is sent from a custom email address, replies will go to that address. You must have Can send outbound emails from custom addresses permission enabled to send messages from a custom address. To see these replies in your inbox you must also have email forwarding enabled.
Search users and leads (by name or email address) for the person to contact.
You can also CC and BCC people by selecting the "Cc" or "Bcc" fields on the right and searching for a contact's name or entering their email address.
Note: When adding recipients to outbound emails, the following rules apply:
You can put multiple people in the "To", "Cc", and "Bcc" field.
You must always have at least one participant in the "To" field. It’s not possible to send an email by only putting recipients in CC or BCC.
BCC’d addresses don’t count as conversation participants as they’re invisible to everyone else on the email, so won’t be included in any replies.
You can't add the email address of a teammate within your workspace. If you want teammates to participate in a conversation, @mention them in a note instead.
Intercom does not automatically create a new lead when you enter an email address in the "To" field. To message someone who isn't in your contacts yet, you must first manually create a lead in the Contacts section, then search for them here.
It is not possible to schedule emails when sending emails from the inbox. You can only schedule emails using the Outbound email section.
Add an optional subject line.
The subject line is set as the conversation title automatically in email conversations. Teammates can choose to override this title.
How to compose and send your message
Compose your message and insert macros, emojis, GIFs, articles, attachments, images, or tours. Simply use keyboard shortcuts with ⌘/Ctrl K or click the action menu below the composer to insert content.
Tips:
Pin your most frequently used inserters to the composer.
Get help composing your message with AI assist.
Notes:
A scrolling bar will appear in the composer when your message reaches the line count limit. This limit depends on the resolution and scale of your window.
If the last reply on a conversation is an internal note, the composer will default to a note. If the last reply on a conversation is a teammate/bot reply, the composer will default to a reply.
Limitations:
Notes can’t be added to the conversation before it’s sent and the pane is disabled on the new conversation page. They can be added after a conversation is sent.
When you write a note, then send a reply, the note content will be cleared when returning to the note composer. This is expected behavior.
Apps, articles and product tours can't be inserted when composing a new email. They can still be inserted via macros but won’t display correctly in the email received by customers.
Email addresses are case sensitive so please ensure you use lower case when tying the email.
When emailing multiple participants, you can decide to create a group conversation with all the participants, or you can preserve the privacy between participants by sending a separate email to each.
If you toggle the Send separately option on before sending, this means:
An individual conversation is created with each person.
Email addresses will not be exposed to each other.
These conversations can be found in your inbox after you send them.
If you toggle the Send separately option off before sending, this means:
A group conversation is created.
Email addresses are exposed to all users.
The group conversation can be found in your inbox after you send it and any replies for the participants will be threaded to that one conversation.
Note:
Send separately can be toggled on / off if all participants are in the "To" field.
Send separately is not available if any participants are in the "Cc" or "Bcc" fields.
And finally, click Send. The conversation will appear immediately in your Inbox and can be managed like any other — you can snooze it, leave internal notes, assign it to a teammate, and use Macros.
How to associate a company with a conversation
You can assign and update a specific company to a conversation to help you organize conversations with customers who are associated with multiple companies. Conversations have an explicit company association, making it easier for teammates to understand which company a conversation is about.
How to associate a company to a conversation
You can set or update the company for a conversation directly from the right-hand sidebar within the conversation attributes.
Navigate to the conversation you wish to assign a company to.
In the right-hand sidebar, you will find the "Company" field under the Conversation attributes section. Click on the Company field to see a dropdown list of all companies associated with the user.
You can also type the company's name to search for a specific company. Choose the correct company from the list.
The conversation will now be associated with the selected company.
Note: If a company name is particularly long, it may be truncated with an ellipsis (...). Click on the field to see the full company name. When creating a new conversation, you can set the company after the conversation has been initiated.
If a user ceases to be associated with a company, that company will no longer be an option in the dropdown for new assignments. However, it will remain linked to any existing conversations it was previously assigned to.
How to view email metadata in conversations
View the metadata for all inbound and outbound email conversations by clicking on the email header in the conversation thread to collapse or expand the details.
In the collapsed state, it will include from and to addresses and in the expanded state, it will roll out more details such as reply-to, cc recipients, date and subject.
Metadata helps provide you with clarity and context, allowing you to confirm the authenticity of emails, communicate with the intended recipient, and provide accurate information when replying to queries.
Email metadata is particularly useful in the following cases:
Forwarded messages where "From" address is usually different from "Reply-to" address.
Identifying the sender addresses in teammate replies.
Conversations with multiple participants.
It also helps you distinguish between email and chat conversations. The metadata included in group conversations becomes particularly valuable in scenarios where it is important to identify the sender or recipient of a message.
FAQs
Can I customise the email template when sending an email from the Inbox?
Can I customise the email template when sending an email from the Inbox?
No, it's not currently possible to edit the email template here. You will need to send the email from Outbound if you wish to use a template.
How are new outbound conversations from the Inbox included in reports?
How are new outbound conversations from the Inbox included in reports?
Outbound conversations from the Inbox are counted in all conversation reports except New inbound conversations.
Outbound conversations from the Inbox are included in the Customer engagement report.
Outbound conversations from the Inbox are surfaced in the Conversation topics report when a new reply is added by the recipient or a teammate.
How do customer satisfaction (CSAT) ratings work with outbound conversations from the Inbox?
How do customer satisfaction (CSAT) ratings work with outbound conversations from the Inbox?
Conversation rating requests (CSAT) will be sent on outbound conversations from the Inbox as long as they meet the other necessary criteria.
Can I retract/recall an email?
Can I retract/recall an email?
No - it's not possible to recall an email once it has been sent.
Can I CC or BCC an email address in an email created from the Inbox?
Can I CC or BCC an email address in an email created from the Inbox?
When creating an email, you can CC participants in the "Cc" field and BCC participants in the "Bcc" field on the right. CC'ing or BCC'ing participants is only available when "Send separately" is toggled off.
How does CC'ing and BCC'ing people in an email affect auto-replies?
How does CC'ing and BCC'ing people in an email affect auto-replies?
If your workspace has the auto-replies feature turned on, that auto-reply will only be sent to the person who sent the incoming email, not to anyone CC'd or BCC'd.
How does CC'ing work with Fin over email?
How does CC'ing work with Fin over email?
By default, Fin replies to all participants in the conversation, with one participant in the "To" field and any other participants in the "Cc" field. You can now configure this behavior in Fin AI Agent > Deploy > Email: CC behavior — choose whether Fin responds when it's only addressed in CC (not a direct recipient). Default: reply to all emails. Reply scope — choose whether Fin replies to all participants or only to the original sender. Default: reply all. These settings can also be configured independently within the Let Fin handle step of individual workflows. Both settings default to existing behavior — no change occurs in your workspace until you explicitly opt in.
How does BCC'ing work with Fin over email?
How does BCC'ing work with Fin over email?
If you have BCC recipients on your email, Fin won't see them.
If a BCC’d recipient replies to the email and Fin receives their message, Fin will respond to the customer’s question – but only to the visible participants in the email (i.e. any participants in the "To" or "Cc" fields). The BCC’d recipient won’t get Fin’s response.
Fin can’t add BCC’d recipients to the conversation or send them replies.
If someone is CC’d or BCC'd on an email part way through a conversation, what conversation history will they see?
If someone is CC’d or BCC'd on an email part way through a conversation, what conversation history will they see?
The new participant will be able to see the history of the thread if the "Conversation history" feature is enabled in your email settings. 👇
This setting allows the entire conversation history to be included in the email when you reply to all parties, which means any new participant CC'd or BCC'd will see the entire conversation history that was previously exchanged.
Conversation history is not available on chat conversations or for chat conversations that are moved to the email channel. If you do not want the CC'd or BCC'd participants to see the entire history, you can delete this history from the composer before sending your reply.
If the same user is added to both the To/CC and BCC fields, what happens?
If the same user is added to both the To/CC and BCC fields, what happens?
If a user is included in both the "To" / "Cc" and "Bcc" fields, the "To" or "Cc" field will take precedence. The user will receive only one email and will not get duplicate copies.
Why am I seeing my workspace name when replying to emails?
Why am I seeing my workspace name when replying to emails?
When replying to an email, the first name on your teammate profile and name of your workspace will always appear as the sender, as shown in the screenshot below.
What is the pre-filled text in the composer?
What is the pre-filled text in the composer?
The pre-filled, greyed-out message in the reply composer is a Smart Reply. Smart Replies are AI-powered suggestions based on the most common greetings and responses used by teammates. They cannot be edited directly and they update automatically as usage patterns change.
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