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Is it possible to change the details of the push notifications payloads in order to increase the app badge count accordingly to the chat pending messages?


We did implement the intercom Integration with our mobile app and everything works like a charm BUT we realised we are sending communications to our clients over the chat but they don't seem to realise messages are waiting for them since the app badge count is zero.

 

I'd tried to increase the value over the AppDelegate methods but can't make it increase the count when the app is not running or in background.

 

Also tried to create a Notification Extension for the app but the criteria for the modifications won't meet since the payload of the notifications has the value mutable content set to false (mutableContent: NO)

 

Another way to make this work would be to send notifications as silent ones but don't know if the payload from Intercom's notifications is customisable.

 

Any help with this subject would be much appreciated.

 

Bests.

Best answer by Eric Fitz

Hey everyone, thanks so much for your patience here as I dig up a bit more about this. The disappointing answer is that updating the badge value will apps are running in the background is not something that we currently support, so there's no way to configure this within your apps.

 

I'm going to tag in our @Product Wishlist​ group to remind me to add this feature request to my monthly feedback report for our product team.

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14 replies

Eric Fitz
Employee
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  • Employee
  • 1630 replies
  • January 18, 2021

Hey there @user834​, can I first confirm if you're looking to implement this for iOS, Android or Cordova? What platform are you building on?


  • New Participant
  • 1 reply
  • April 19, 2021

+1. Hi Eric, we have similar problem and question. It is not possible to update badge count when app in background. Could you suggest us how it can be resolved? As it was explained above it is possible to fix it on the app side if the Intercom push notification payload will have the value mutable content set to true (mutableContent: YES).

As the workaround we can subscribe on Intercom web hooks with our server, listen unread conversations count, create and send the new push notification with correct push to iOS app. Would it work for us?

 


  • New Participant
  • 1 reply
  • April 19, 2021

Hi Eric,

 

this is a big issue for us too. We use a native iOS app. The notification comes in, but the badge is not shown on the app.


  • New Participant
  • 4 replies
  • April 21, 2021

@eric f11​ Hey Eric. We've just integrated Intercom push notifications for our iOS app and run into this issue also. The docs state:

Intercom never changes the badge value of your app. Thus we can ensure that whatever badge value you’re managing in your app, we don’t alter in any way.

 

This is easy enough to handle manually when the app is running in foreground as we can observe when the unread message count changes, but it's proving difficult to update the badge value whilst the app is in the background. This means users may not think they have any unread messages, but they do and are just unaware because they missed the notification. This will negatively impact our users' customer support experience.

 

Any support on this would be great!


  • New Participant
  • 4 replies
  • April 21, 2021

@mathijs​ @voices​ would you be able to upvote this please to boost our chances of hearing back soon? 😀

 


Eric Fitz
Employee
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  • Employee
  • 1630 replies
  • Answer
  • April 23, 2021

Hey everyone, thanks so much for your patience here as I dig up a bit more about this. The disappointing answer is that updating the badge value will apps are running in the background is not something that we currently support, so there's no way to configure this within your apps.

 

I'm going to tag in our @Product Wishlist​ group to remind me to add this feature request to my monthly feedback report for our product team.


  • New Participant
  • 3 replies
  • August 4, 2021

Hi Eric, do you have an update on this one?


Eric Fitz
Employee
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  • Employee
  • 1630 replies
  • August 4, 2021

Hey @martijn​, this is a feature request for now!


  • New Participant
  • 2 replies
  • April 25, 2022

Hi Eric, please can you give an update on this? Seems like it should be there by now!


  • New Participant
  • 3 replies
  • June 21, 2022

Hi Eric, please can you give an update on this?


  • New Participant
  • 2 replies
  • December 13, 2023

Hi Eric/Intercom,

Is there any update yet or expected from your end? We also face the same limitation/issue for our application.

It would already be great if  "content-available": 1 or mutable-content can be added to the payload, so we can handle the badge counter at our end.

Looking forward to your update.


  • New Participant
  • 4 replies
  • January 16, 2024
Michel Bakker wrote:

Hi Eric/Intercom,

Is there any update yet or expected from your end? We also face the same limitation/issue for our application.

It would already be great if  "content-available": 1 or mutable-content can be added to the payload, so we can handle the badge counter at our end.

Looking forward to your update.

+1


Hi ​@Eric Fitz , It's been 3 years now and could you please let us know whether this feature available? We really need to handle the badge count for the app when the Intercom messages come while the app is quit.
I think adding "content-available": 1  to the payload is not a big-deal and we can have the options to configure from our Admin Dashboard. 
What is your idea? Thank you so much.


  • New Participant
  • 1 reply
  • February 23, 2025

+1 

Would love this feature, this is why for our mobile app we use another tool.


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