Right now there's a hard split in Intercom: Outbound messages (and the automated "away/auto-reply" message) can use full HTML, custom templates, brand colors, logos, buttons, but the moment a conversation is live and a teammate (or a Macro) replies from the Inbox, the composer drops back to plain rich-text only (bold, italic, headers, lists, links). No HTML block, no template selection, nothing.
This creates a jarring inconsistency inside the same conversation thread: the customer's first automated message looks polished and on-brand (logo, structured layout, buttons), and the very next message — the actual human reply looks like it was typed in Notepad. For companies that specifically chose Intercom for its modern, branded messaging experience, this is a real gap between what the product promises and what customers actually receive in their inbox.
Concrete example: a customer submits a sensitive request (e.g. an image-rights/compliance complaint). Our automated first response is warm, structured, on-brand. Our actual substantive reply, the one that matters most, addressing their specific case, arrives looking like an unstyled wall of text. That's backwards: the more serious the reply, the more it should look intentional and professional, not the opposite.
This isn't a new/niche request: it's been raised in the Intercom Community repeatedly, for years, by different customers hitting the same wall:
- "Is there a way to customize the format of email replies through Intercom?" (2023) — Intercom support confirmed formatting limitations are "out of our hands" on the Inbox side.
- "Can I format email replies sent from Inbox?" (2022) — community answer: "I do not see a way to do it when you go from Inbox... you can do so from Outbound."
- "Help with Formatting Emails from Intercom" (2025) — teams working around this with screenshot-based signatures because there's no real styling option in Macros.
Multiple paying customers independently hitting the same ceiling over multiple years is a signal this isn't an edge case.
What we're specifically asking for (pick any, all would help):
- Let the existing Company/Personal email templates (already built for Outbound) be selectable when replying from the Inbox, including when using a Macro.
- Or, at minimum, bring the "+" → Insert HTML/button/list option, which already exists in the email signature editor, into the main Inbox/Macro reply composer.
- Allow Macros specifically to be authored with the same template/HTML support Outbound emails have, since Macros are effectively "pre-written emails" and should get the same treatment.
Thanks for ur time!