Dynamic and Fixed audiences

Learn the difference between sending outbound messages to a dynamic or fixed audience.

Beth-Ann Sher avatar
Written by Beth-Ann Sher
Updated over a week ago

With Proactive Support, you can send outbound messages to engage your customers. There are two ways you can send them: to a "Dynamic" audience, or a "Fixed" audience. 

  • Dynamic audience means the message will send to everyone who matches the rules now and anyone who matches the rules in the future.

  • Fixed audience means the message will only send to people who match your audience rules now.

Choose how a message sends

When composing a message, scroll down to the Rules > Audience section and choose "Dynamic" or "Fixed":

You can’t change the way a message will send after it has been set live.


Dynamic audiences are great for

Onboarding new customers 

You can trigger messages to send at key moments during onboarding. For example, you can let customers know when they should use an important feature for the first time, or contact them right before their trial ends. Check out this guide to create your first onboarding campaign

Helping customers at key moments 

For example, after customers take a specific action in your product, you can trigger an auto message that guides them to take the next logical step. Learn how to anticipate your customer’s questions. 


When dynamic messages will send

Messages with a dynamic audience won’t send to a given user more than once unless they're triggered by an event or you use a company variable in your message.

Dynamic chat and post messages send when  

  1. The customer logs in or visits your site.

  2. They match the audience rules you’ve set. 

  3. During the scheduled delivery times.

If you use "Last seen" in your audience rules, we send any messages based on that rule before the "Last seen" value is updated by the user logging in.

Dynamic email messages send when 

  1. You first set the message live.

  2. Users match your audience rules. (The audience rules are checked every hour.)

  3. During the delivery times you set. 


Fixed audiences are great for

Announcing a feature or update 

These work well for time-sensitive announcements like when you want to launch a feature. Here’s the best way to announce your new features.

Reaching out to a high profile customer now 

For example, when a high profile user signs up, you might want to reach out and offer the chance to chat, or to let them know that they qualify for your VIP support. 

User testing a message

If you're sending a mail out to 100s of 1000s of users, you’ll really benefit from trying it out with 20, or 50 users first, and seeing what the reaction is like. 

Note: If a "Fixed Audience" is selected for a message it will be automatically paused after 30 days. This means shareable URLs or code triggers will not work after 30 days. This affects messages like surveys, tours, and carousels.


Send a one-off message to a single person

To send a one-off message to a particular customer, head to their profile in your Contacts and click New conversation in the top right corner.

Or, to send a one-off message from the Intercom conversations mobile app

  1. Open a customer’s profile.

  2. Click the message icon in the top right corner.

  3. Compose and send your message. 

The message is sent as a chat by default, but you can choose to send it by email instead.


Find all your Fixed and Dynamic messages

To see all your Dynamic or Fixed messages in one place, go to the "All messages" list under Proactive Support and add the Audience filter.


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