Use this article to get answers to common questions about sending Chats, Posts, and Banners in Intercom — including how to capture leads, test outbound messages before sending, configure banner targeting rules, troubleshoot delivery issues, and understand how Banners behave in a Series.

Sending Chats, Posts, and Banners

Can I capture MQLs with Intercom?

Yes, it’s easy to capture marketing qualified leads (MQLs) with Intercom.

You can capture MQLs from ongoing messages you send to visitors. Just select ‘email collector’ as your response type. The email collector is only available for 'Chat' messages. This is not supported on mobile.

After you send a message, you can view your stats to see how many MQLs it collected. Once you start capturing marketing qualified leads, your sales team can step in to qualify promising prospects, and convert them to paying customers.

To incentivize visitors to give their email, offer them something valuable in return. For example, a link to a webinar you’re hosting or other exclusive content, like an ebook.

How can I send a message to all customers without opening multiple conversations?

You can use Intercom's Outbound channels, such as Chats or Posts. Chats are announcements sent through the Intercom Messenger (the chat widget on your site or app); Posts are full-screen announcements displayed inside your product. Chats can be used to announce something through the Intercom Messenger, while Posts can be used to make an announcement in your product. You can also prevent customers from replying to Chats or Posts and starting a conversation. For more information, check out this article - Get started sending Chat and Post messages.

What happens to message stats for the Reactions (Chats and Posts only) if I change the emojis after setting the message live?

Reactions are the emoji responses customers can send when they receive a Chat or Post. If you change the reaction set after the message has gone live, the stats will be reset to zero, and it isn't currently possible to restore the old stats.

How can I test outbound messages before sending them to customers?

To effectively test outbound chat, post, or banner messages before sending them to your customers:

Create a test user
Set the audience only to that user's email address
Check in the Preview that only that user will receive that Outbound message
Set the message live and make sure other conditions for receiving the message are fulfilled (such as accurate URL)
Confirm the message arrived successfully by checking your message stats under Outbound > Banner > Views , or by checking the test user's Messenger directly

After confirming the content meets your requirements update the audience rules to target your intended customer segment. This testing process helps ensure your messages are polished and effective before reaching your wider audience.

Is there a charge per post regardless of whether the message is displayed as a snippet or in full?

Posts are included in our usage-based channels and will get charged based on "Messages Sent" either as a post snippet or full post.

Banners

Note: Banners are available on the Essential, Advanced, and Expert plans. To create, manage, and launch Banners, teammates need a Full seat and the "Can bulk message visitors, leads, and users" permission. Teammates on Lite seats can't create or set outbound content live. If you're using CSV-based audience targeting, the "Can manage tags" permission is also required.

Is there a character limit with banners?

There is no character limit for banners. However, they do increase in height the more content there is so we encourage shorter banners.

How do I restore my deleted banner?

Once a banner has been deleted, there is no way to restore it.

How do I make a banner appear every time, all the time for my users?

To make sure that your banner appears every time, all the time for your users (for example, when you've critical information or outages you want to make sure users are aware of), do the following:

Make sure the "Show a dismiss button" is toggled off
In "Frequency and scheduling" make sure to send the banner every time the person matches the rules

Why haven't my banners been sent to any users yet?

Banners will only be sent to users that match any Audience Rules when those users are seen online by the Messenger installation on your site. If no matched users have been seen online within a given timeframe, the Banner stats will show that it hasn't been sent.

If there are Users that match a Banners Audience Rules whom you believe have been online and should have been sent a Banner message, please send our Customer Support team URL from in your Workspace of the User's profile and the Banner you believe they should have been sent and we can investigate further.

Note: The preview feature shows how a banner looks but doesn't enforce audience or URL targeting. To verify targeting, publish the banner and test it on live pages.

When testing banners targeting anonymous visitors (users whose email address isn't yet known to Intercom), use incognito mode to verify visibility.

Simplify audience rules by removing complex predicates like "contains exact word" — these can cause unexpected matching behavior. Use separate rules for each value instead, and test changes one at a time to isolate issues.
Ensure the Banner is created in the correct workspace and targets the right domain, especially when testing on a staging site.
Remember that the preview feature shows how a Banner looks but doesn't enforce audience or URL targeting — publish the Banner and test it on live pages to verify targeting.

What order are banners sent in?

If a user matches the audience rules for multiple banners, we first show the banner that was first set live. Once the user dismisses that banner, then we’ll show the next one in order of when it was set live.

Note: If the earliest banner is non-dismissible, then users will not receive any subsequent banners. As a workaround you can temporarily pause a non-dismissible banner once other banners have been set live, and then set it live again to push it to the back of the priority list.

Can I edit a banner to be non-dismissable?

If an existing banner is changed from being dismissible to non-dismissible, any user who had previously dismissed it will see it again. If configured with "Send every time the person matches the rules until dismissed," it will not reappear after dismissal — including dismissals triggered by clicking a call-to-action (CTA).

Can a Series banner be non-dismissable?

Banners created as part of a Series (a sequence of automated messages in Intercom) are non-persistent, meaning they display only once regardless of whether a dismiss button is visible. After the Banner is shown, the user continues their path through the Series — the Banner won't reappear on subsequent visits.

Why isn't my banner with an email collector showing to logged-in users?

When a banner includes an email collector, Intercom automatically applies a hidden rule that restricts the banner to visitors or leads whose email address is unknown. If a customer's email address is already known to Intercom, the banner won't be shown to them — even if they otherwise match all your audience rules.

This is by design: an email collector is only useful when the email is not yet known, so there's no reason to show it to already-identified users.

Tip: If you want to show a banner to all users — including those whose email is known — choose a different action type, such as 'Open a URL' or 'Ask for reactions'.

How can I filter out mobile devices from banners on our website?

To ensure a Banner is only visible on your website (and not on mobile devices), use targeting rules based on the operating system attribute. Go to Audience > Add rule and use "os contains android" or "os contains iOS" to exclude mobile operating systems, which targets only web users.

You can also use these additional targeting options:

Target a specific page: In the Where to send section of the banner editor (Edit > Where to send), add a rule targeting the URL of the page you want the Banner to appear on.
Exclude a specific page: In the same Where to send section, add a rule that includes your domain but excludes the specific page URL you want to omit.
Target anonymous visitors only: Enable Visitors in the audience settings. This shows the Banner only to users whose email address isn't yet known to Intercom.

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Chats, Posts, and Banners FAQs