What's the best way to enable subscription types after we've begun using outbound messaging?

Hi ​@Amber Stephens, Seán here from the Fin technical support team 👋

Thanks for raising this — I wouldn’t rely on the opt-in form for account updates.

If these are true operational emails, the better approach is to treat them separately from marketing emails and use in-app messages as a backup, which it sounds like you’re already doing.

If you’re sending bulk email, Intercom also has an "Include unsubscribed contacts" option for important communications, although it has some limits depending on how the message is set up.

So short version: use Subscriptions for preference-based content, but for must-see account updates, use operational email + in-app backup rather than waiting for people to opt in.

​@Sean Meade Forum Support Lead Thank you. I’m thinking about pulling a list of all users who have unsubscribed from our emails and reaching out to see if they’re willing to resubscribe if we begin using subscription types. They’d then get organizational emails and we won’t have to make frequent use of “include unsubscribed users”. We have customers (typically business owners) who aren’t in-app at all so they need the account related emails but don’t care about other emails. Does that seem like a good idea? 

Hi ​@Amber Stephens, Seán here from the Fin technical support team 👋

Yes, that can be a sensible next step, but I’d be careful about how you do it.

Subscriptions are best for preference-based email, because they let people opt out of specific lists instead of unsubscribing from everything. So if you expect customers to receive organisational or account-update emails going forward, creating a dedicated Subscription for that type of communication is a good setup.

Where I’d be cautious is emailing people who already unsubscribed purely to ask them to opt back in. Intercom’s guidance is that promotional or non-transactional email requires consent, while true transactional / operational messages are handled separately. Because of that, I wouldn’t rely on a resubscribe campaign as the main fix unless you already have a compliant way to collect that consent.

For must-see account updates, I’d still separate those from marketing-style outbound. Intercom supports including unsubscribed contacts for important email communications, but there are limits: it only works for email, only from a custom domain, only for recurring or fixed-schedule eligible messages, not Series, and it won’t include globally unsubscribed contacts who were last seen more than 90 days ago. Unsubscribed contacts can also still receive in-app messages, so keeping that as a backup makes sense.

So my recommendation would be:

1. Create a dedicated Subscription for those organisational/account-update emails.

2. Only re-subscribe contacts where you’ve collected valid consent, either manually, in bulk from Contacts, or via API if that fits your process.

3. Keep critical operational messages separate, and use the “Include unsubscribed contacts” option only where the message qualifies and the setup supports it.

4. Continue using in-app as the fallback for anyone who still won’t receive email.

If you want, I can also sketch out what that subscription structure should look like in practice.