Can I search Inbox by users phone number? | Community
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Can I search Inbox by users phone number?

  • November 3, 2021
  • 6 replies
  • 257 views

Can I search Inbox by users phone number?

Best answer by User49

You can't search for phone number the same way you search for a user.

 

For me, there is two options.

 

Option number 1: Have the client write the phone number in a freetext message instead of as a data field - that way you can search for it as content

 

image 

Option number two:

 

Add the number you collect as a comment , for that way you can search for it like the option above

 

6 replies

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  • Innovator ✨
  • Answer
  • November 3, 2021

You can't search for phone number the same way you search for a user.

 

For me, there is two options.

 

Option number 1: Have the client write the phone number in a freetext message instead of as a data field - that way you can search for it as content

 

image 

Option number two:

 

Add the number you collect as a comment , for that way you can search for it like the option above

 


  • Author
  • New Participant
  • November 4, 2021

Thanks a lot for the tip 😀

 


  • New Participant
  • August 1, 2023

Can this please be added to the roadmap?

Intercom is building out entire AI enabled chat bots but does not support something as basic as looking up lead and user information by phone number?

 

To add additional text fields and duplicate data entry should never be the answer and has the downside of data becoming out of sync, especially for companies that leverage the api and allow users to modify information like phone number and having it update Intercom appropriately.

 

Solutions like Elastic search,  Solr and many other have been around for years to help simplify finding data in large databases. 
 

Please consider this improvement as core functionality that should be a given in 2023. 
 

Thank you


Jacob Cox
Intercom Team
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  • Sr. Technical Support Engineer
  • August 5, 2023

Hey there folks!

The Inbox Search feature is definitely moreso focused on searches based on conversation attributes than it is User attributes.

Another way to do this is to look up Users via their phone number in the Contacts page.

 

Their you can access their Email address or Name and use that to add a User filter for Conversations that are associated with that User in the Inbox Search feature.

This does add an extra step to the search process, which I totally understand can be time consuming! I’ll write up a Feature Request for our team so they know that there’s interest in having more options in that User filter!


  • New Participant
  • August 22, 2025

Any updates in the search for allowing phone number capabilities. This is a valuable tool for Support folks especially in call centers. would help provide a more robust search functionality. Currently the search feature is feels limited.  


  • New Participant
  • November 7, 2025

Just giving this a bit more weight I really believe letting agents search by phone number would make it much easier to find the right user or lead to start a WhatsApp or SMS chat. We’ve been with Zendesk for years and were honestly shocked this basic search feature isn’t available in Intercom!--startfragment>