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Is there a way to bulk create/update users via API?


I have an application with a few thousand users that I would like to create/update in intercom and synchronise at least weekly with attributes that are calculated by my backend and that are required for contextual engagement.

 

The Contacts API does not support bulk updates and has two major constraints for large volume: i) it requires your app to understand whether a contact has already been created before calling with POST or PUT (the javascript SDK does not suffer from this); ii) the API rate limits are ridiculously small for any medium-sized user base (166 requests per 10s window, what???), which are even smaller if you need to check if a user exists before issuing either a POST or PUT.

 

Furthermore, the Contacts API requires you to save the intercom id for a user for any updates, which is not user-friendly at all. The javascript SDK operates from the external_id provided (controlled by my app), while the REST API does not understand it at all and requires you to either call a GET or save the intercom id in the database. Yes, RESTful, but very bad design.

 

And, the manual import requires that all attributes being imported to be manually mapped by the user, a major time drag and extremely error prone.

 

So, are there any better options to enable bulk create/update of "user" contacts?

Best answer by Diana Tripac

Hi Eduardo!👋 We don't have an endpoint for bulk updating users I'm afraid.

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7 replies

Eric Fitz
Employee
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  • Employee
  • 1630 replies
  • July 20, 2021

Hey @roy s11​, I know you're very knowledgable when it comes to our API. Do you think you would be able to help @eduardo g11​ here?


  • New Participant
  • 1 reply
  • November 30, 2021

Hello, same for me ! An answer ?


  • New Participant
  • 2 replies
  • January 28, 2022

@eric f11​ @eduardo g11​ any updates here? Thanks


Diana Tripac
Intercom Team
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  • Senior Community Program Manager @Intercom
  • 154 replies
  • Answer
  • June 15, 2022

Hi Eduardo!👋 We don't have an endpoint for bulk updating users I'm afraid.


Hi @Diana Tripac ,

Since you last answer is a year old . Just wanted to check if there have been any change on this topic or at least is it in the dev teams roadmap for the current year? Thanks.


+1 here. 

 

Has anyone found a work around? I am in disbelief there is no solution for this… it is Intercom for crying out loud. 


Jacob Cox
Intercom Team
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  • Sr. Technical Support Engineer
  • 441 replies
  • April 14, 2024

Hey there! 

There currently isn’t a way to bulk create Contacts via the API, but you should be able to write a script that loops through an Array and creates those Users using our APIs ‘Create Contact’ endpoint

You can bulk create Users via a CSV import in your Workspace if that’s preferable. You can read up on that process here.


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