Hi! Evaluating Intercom now as a potential replacement for my previous support system. Setup has been great so far! However, I do see one potential showstopper in the Android SDK.
When receiving a push notification it is possible to open the intercom messages directly from the notification, and then have a permanent “chat bubble” on the home screen. We are a very small team with a large userbase, and can’t have a direct line to support available on users home screens. Is there a way to disable this? I do want users to get notified when there is a new message, and it could be fine to open the messenger directly. However, to show a permanent chat bubble on the home screen is not something I am comfortable with. Can you disable this in some way?
Android: Disable notification Bubble?
Best answer by Paul B12
Hey
Hi! Evaluating Intercom now as a potential replacement for my previous support system.
You're right: Intercom’s Android SDK includes a persistent chat head (“bubble”) UI that appears when a user taps a push notification. While it can be helpful for ongoing conversations, it’s not always a fit for apps with large user bases or lean support teams.
To manage this in your use case, you’ll want to override the default notification behavior in your app. Specifically, you can:
-
Handle the push notification yourself, and choose not to trigger the chat bubble
-
Use
Intercom.setInAppMessageVisibility(Intercom.Visibility.GONE)to control in-app behavior -
For full control, use custom push handling and directly open the Messenger or a screen of your choice without activating the persistent UI
If you’re using custom push notification handling, you can route users to the Messenger view without triggering the default UI:
Intercom.client().displayMessenger()
Or, skip opening the Messenger altogether and just alert the user another way.
Let me know your SDK version and how you're currently handling push happy to help tweak your implementation to suit your team’s needs!
Some sources: https://developers.intercom.com/installing-intercom/react-native/configuration
https://developers.intercom.com/installing-intercom/react-native/using-intercom
+5- Intercom Team
- 82 replies
- Answer
Hey
Hi! Evaluating Intercom now as a potential replacement for my previous support system.
You're right: Intercom’s Android SDK includes a persistent chat head (“bubble”) UI that appears when a user taps a push notification. While it can be helpful for ongoing conversations, it’s not always a fit for apps with large user bases or lean support teams.
To manage this in your use case, you’ll want to override the default notification behavior in your app. Specifically, you can:
-
Handle the push notification yourself, and choose not to trigger the chat bubble
-
Use
Intercom.setInAppMessageVisibility(Intercom.Visibility.GONE)to control in-app behavior -
For full control, use custom push handling and directly open the Messenger or a screen of your choice without activating the persistent UI
If you’re using custom push notification handling, you can route users to the Messenger view without triggering the default UI:
Intercom.client().displayMessenger()
Or, skip opening the Messenger altogether and just alert the user another way.
Let me know your SDK version and how you're currently handling push happy to help tweak your implementation to suit your team’s needs!
Some sources: https://developers.intercom.com/installing-intercom/react-native/configuration
https://developers.intercom.com/installing-intercom/react-native/using-intercom
Thanks. I have handled the notification myself for now.
Intercom.setInAppMessageVisiblity(Intercom.Visibility.GONE) achieves the opposite of what I want. When in app you should get an in app message, what I want to remove is specifically the chat bubble on the home screen.
But yeah handling the notification manually and hten calling Intercom.client().displayMessenger() does seem to get the behavior I wanted.
Reply
Most helpful members this week
Your Privacy ChoicesJoin the Intercom Community 🎉
Already have an account? Login
Login to the community
No account yet? Create an account
Intercom Customers and Employees
Log in with SSOEnter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.