October helpdesk roundup: what shipped in Intercom this month
Here's a round-up of the latest Intercom Helpdesk releases from the past couple of weeks. Full details are in the Intercom changelog.
👥 Workforce and routing
- Workforce Management is now available with the Pro add-on (15 Oct). Forecast volume, build and reuse schedules, see where you're short-staffed, and review team performance, all inside Intercom. If you used it during the beta, your setup is still there, but you'll need the Pro add-on to keep using it.
- Skill-based routing for phone calls (16 Oct). Calls now ring teammates with the matching skill first, using the same skills you already use for chats and emails.
📥 Inbox
- Flexible snooze options (23 Oct). Admins can create their own snooze options, such as "In 2 hours" or "Friday at 5pm", group them into lists, and choose which teams use each list.
- Follow conversations and tickets (21 Oct). Stay in the loop on a conversation without being assigned to it, with a new "Followed by" filter in Search and Views.
- Save any Inbox search as a View (19 Oct). One click turns your filters into a View in your sidebar, and date presets like "Last 30 days" keep rolling.
- Dictate in the Inbox (14 Oct). Speak your replies and notes for up to two minutes, then edit before sending.
📝 Macros
- Macro Usage Analytics (16 Oct). A new Usage tab shows how often each macro is used, by whom and in which conversations, so you can find and bulk-delete stale ones.
- Macro Admin Mode (9 Oct). Teammates with the "Can manage shared macros" permission can view everyone's personal macros and convert good ones to shared macros.
💬 Messenger and outbound
- Search inside a Messenger conversation (15 Oct). Find text in a long conversation, with every match highlighted.
- Branded SMS numbers (13 Oct). Assign SMS numbers to a brand once, and Intercom sends from the matching number automatically. Replies are tagged with the brand, and Fin answers from that brand's Help Center.
See all the details: intercom.com/changes
💬 Over to you: Which of these would make the biggest difference to your team, and what's still on your wish list? Share it in the comments, or add it to the ideas section.