Hello Intercom Community,

I'm encountering a persistent issue with retrieving and listening for unread conversation counts in my React Native application using the Intercom SDK. Neither Intercom.getUnreadConversationCount() nor the IntercomUnreadConversationCountDidChangeNotification event listener seems to be working as expected.

Goal: My objective is to display the current unread message count from Intercom within my app's UI (outside of the Intercom messenger itself).

Expected Behavior:

1. When new messages arrive in Intercom conversations, the IntercomUnreadConversationCountDidChangeNotification listener should fire with the updated count.

2. Intercom.getUnreadConversationCount() should return the correct number of unread conversations at the time of the call.

Actual Behavior:

• Intercom.getUnreadConversationCount() consistently returns 0 (or null/undefined, please specify) even when there are clearly unread messages visible when I manually open the Intercom messenger.

• The Intercom.addEventListener('IntercomUnreadConversationCountDidChangeNotification', ...) callback never seems to fire, even after new messages are received and conversations are marked unread. I've added an alert(count) inside the listener, but it never triggers.

Steps I've Taken & Debugging:

1. Polling: I've implemented a polling mechanism that calls Intercom.getUnreadConversationCount() every 30 seconds. The value remains 0.

2. Event Listener: I've set up the IntercomUnreadConversationCountDidChangeNotification listener within a useEffect hook, ensuring proper cleanup on unmount.

3. Console Logs: I've added console logs around the Intercom calls but receive no errors or relevant output.

4. App State: I've tested this both with the app in the foreground and background (though for polling, I'd expect foreground to work).

5. Re-installation: I've tried deleting and reinstalling the app on my test device.

6. Force Quit: Force-quitting and reopening the app doesn't resolve the issue.

7. Intercom Messenger: When I open the Intercom messenger within my app, the unread count inside the messenger itself updates correctly.
    

This is my sample code what I doing to get the results

 

// Example of my polling attempt
import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import Intercom from '@intercom/intercom-react-native'; // Adjust import path if needed

function MyComponent() {
  const tunreadCount, setUnreadCount] = useState(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    const fetchCount = async () => {
      try {
        const count = await Intercom.getUnreadConversationCount();
        console.log('Fetched Intercom unread count:', count);
        setUnreadCount(count);
      } catch (error) {
        console.error('Error fetching Intercom unread count:', error);
      }
    };

    // Initial fetch
    fetchCount();

    // Polling every 60 seconds
    const intervalId = setInterval(fetchCount, 60000);

    return () => clearInterval(intervalId);
  }, ,]);

  // Event Listener attempt
  useEffect(() => {
    const listener = Intercom.addEventListener('IntercomUnreadConversationCountDidChangeNotification', ({count}) => {
      console.log('Intercom unread conversation count changed via listener:', count);
      alert(`Listener fired! Count: ${count}`); // Using alert for quick debugging
      setUnreadCount(count); // If this was meant to update state
    });

    return () => {
      listener.remove();
    };
  }, ,]);

  return (
    // ... JSX using unreadCount ...
    <Text>Unread Messages: {unreadCount}</Text>
  );
}

Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!