---
title: "Latest reads"
description: "The engineering internet, summarised so you can actually read it."
---

# Latest reads
> The engineering internet, summarised so you can actually read it.

## Articles

### [Built for you: Custom Reports, Conversation Topics, Macros, and more to personalize customer communication - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/built-for-you-custom-reports-conversation-topics-macros-and-more-to-pe.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Announcement

Intercom launched a suite of new features including Custom Reports, Conversation Topics, and Macros to help teams balance personal and efficient customer communication at scale. Custom Reports lets teams tailor dashboards in just a few simple steps by building custom charts from user and conversation data attributes and exporting them. Conversation Topics provides a machine-learning powered engine that visually represents what customers are talking about and how often, giving teams an at-a-glance view of top concerns. Macros automate common inbox actions like tagging, assigning, snoozing, and closing conversations with a single click, boosting efficiency by up to 43%. Additional updates include Series targeting and split testing, enhanced Articles, mobile app tagging, permissions, and custom return paths for email deliverability.


### [Built for you: Powerful updates to Series, Banners, Resolution Bot, and more to help you stay personal at scale - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/built-for-you-powerful-updates-to-series-banners-resolution-bot-and-mo.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Announcement

Intercom announced powerful updates to Series, Banners, Resolution Bot, and other tools to help businesses scale personalized customer interactions. Series now enables split testing of up to five message variants, team annotations, company-level goals from company data, and tag removal to streamline workflows. Banners can be non-dismissible to ensure customers take action and trigger Product Tours from the banner for guided walkthroughs. Resolution Bot introduces looping mode to answer multiple questions, auto-closes conversations after three minutes of inactivity, includes a bot intro, and offers bot-only self-service with a configurable link. Additional updates include granular sidebar permissions to restrict inbox access, no-reply post messages, mobile carousel and article triggers from in-app buttons, iOS universal links, and API version 2.3 for exporting conversation data.


### [Built for you: Banners, Series, and more features to create a conversational experience - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/built-for-you-banners-series-and-more-features-to-create-a-conversatio.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Announcement

Intercom introduced new features to unify conversational support, marketing, and engagement, including Banners, Series, and enhanced bots. Banners are an unobtrusive message type for announcements and promotions, with brand styling, personalization, and scheduling. Series is a visual campaign builder that orchestrates behavior-based messaging across channels with audience segmentation for activation, retention, or re-engagement. Custom Bots now include A/B testing with goal setting and retriggering rules for returning visitors, while email targeting can be based on website behavior with new reporting trendlines. Inbox management gains automatic conversation closure, tagging permissions, CSV export with field selection, and predictive answers in Resolution Bot, while API v2.2 adds conversation title viewing, assignment, redaction, and segment listing.


### [Cultivating a robust app ecosystem - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/cultivating-a-robust-app-ecosystem-the-intercom-blog.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Explainer

The post describes Intercom’s approach to maintaining app health in its App Store, inspired by a gardener tending individual plants in a Victorian garden. The main problem is that apps can become non-functional due to token expiration, third-party setting changes, or permission updates, all of which require customer action to fix. Intercom designed an app check system that requests the app’s status for each workspace, providing specific details about what is breaking and recommending two-click fixes to resolve the issue. Notifications to users with apps in unhealthy states are 2.5x more effective at generating active users than efforts to acquire entirely new app users. The key insight is that each app needs individual attention and tailored treatment, just as each plant in a garden requires unique care over time.


### [6 Keys to Getting High-Quality & Useful Customer Feedback](https://yomu.fyi/post/6-keys-to-getting-high-quality-amp-useful-customer-feedback.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Explainer

The post outlines six keys for collecting high-quality customer feedback: the type of customer, prompted vs. unprompted feedback, motivations, volume, repetition, and stakes. Loyal or heavy users provide more valuable feedback, and unprompted feedback often reveals unknown issues, while customers are motivated to give feedback when they have extreme experiences, leading to a J-curve distribution. Methods for collecting feedback include live chat, short surveys, and social media, and a seven-step analysis process categorizes feedback by type, theme, and code to prioritize insights. Volume protects against recency bias, repetition indicates unresolved basics, and high-stakes feedback like security loopholes requires immediate action. A case study of Albacross shows how using NPS surveys and automated follow-ups via Intercom doubled their NPS score from 12 to 30 and increased reviews on Capterra.


### [Growing A Platform: Introducing API Versioning In Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/post/growing-a-platform-introducing-api-versioning-in-intercom.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Problem & solution

Intercom introduced API versioning for their REST and Messenger Framework APIs, using their open-source Requisite library, enabling safe, frequent updates without breaking existing integrations. Previously, API changes required advance notice and coordinated migrations, which was unreliable and hindered iteration, so they conducted user research to identify friction points. The versioning system uses ‘version changes’ — single transformations that roll back a model change to a previous version, such as renaming user\_id to customer\_id, allowing controllers to always operate on the latest version and chain multiple changes. Developers can test isolated requests using a specific header and upgrade through the Developer Hub, with the ability to roll back immediately if something goes wrong. This design, inspired by Stripe’s approach, allows Intercom to ship changes more frequently and safely across REST API, Messenger Framework, and webhooks.


### [3 Tips on Using Ngrok to Maximize Messenger Apps](https://yomu.fyi/post/3-tips-on-using-ngrok-to-maximize-messenger-apps.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Tutorial

Ngrok is a tool that creates public URLs to expose a web server on a development machine, enabling developers to set webhook URLs while building Messenger Apps for Intercom without external infrastructure. To start, run ‘ngrok http 3000’ to tunnel a local server; the free version limits sessions to eight hours and generates a new address each run. The ngrok web interface at http://localhost:4040 allows inspection of HTTP traffic, showing request and response details. Developers can replay requests with the Replay button to avoid manually re-triggering endpoints during testing. The interface also validates JSON formatting in request and response bodies, highlighting errors like missing quotes for debugging.


### [How We Spread Engineering Knowledge & Culture Across Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/post/how-we-spread-engineering-knowledge-amp-culture-across-intercom.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Problem & solution

Large engineering organizations often face siloed knowledge and culture as teams focus on their own domains. Intercom addresses this with engineering tours, where engineers temporarily transfer to another team to work on a specific project, such as building a scalable solution for database performance issues. New engineers go on tour within their first few months, and all engineers are encouraged to tour at least once a year. Tours are designed with a mentor and can be feature-oriented, shipping a new product or tool with a demo at the weekly Show and Tell, or tech-debt oriented, fixing bugs or performance issues. Beyond code, tours build relationships and spread culture across offices in Dublin, London, and San Francisco, and the concept has expanded to other departments like Customer Support and Marketing; engineers bring back learnings to their home teams.


### [What We Shipped: 7 New Data And Customization-driven Features](https://yomu.fyi/post/what-we-shipped-7-new-data-and-customization-driven-features.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Announcement

Intercom released seven data and customization-driven features to help sales and marketing teams optimize their funnel and personalize customer experiences at scale. The updated Clearbit Reveal app uses Clearbit data for personalized auto messages, routing conversations by company size, and viewing company data in the Inbox. New Revenue Reports, powered by the Salesforce app, show opportunities, pipeline, revenue influenced, and which landing pages and messages generate the most opportunities and conversations. Sales Team Performance Reports provide leaderboards for largest deals closed, response times, and meetings booked. Control groups on the Messages Premium plan enable A/B testing by withholding messages from half the audience to validate performance, while other features include duplicating Custom Bots for experimentation, customizing Operator’s bot identity with a name, logo, and color scheme while keeping it clear it’s a bot, and advanced Messenger security options like blocking GIFs and attachments in emails, available on new Premium plans.


### [8 New Features To Increase Conversions And Grow Your Business](https://yomu.fyi/post/8-new-features-to-increase-conversions-and-grow-your-business.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Announcement

Intercom announced eight new features aimed at helping sales, support, and marketing teams manage volume and capacity more efficiently to increase conversions and grow their business. Custom Bots can qualify leads automatically, book meetings, and work 24/7 without code, connecting to the tech stack and accelerating sales cycles by delivering qualified leads when prospects are live. The new Intercom App Store offers over 100 apps for acquiring, engaging, and retaining customers, including Zoom Webinars, Content Showcase, Coda, and PieSync, along with a new Messenger framework and Developer Hub for building custom apps. Updated webhooks and APIs provide more flexibility to trigger actions based on conversation tags, check teammate availability with the Admins API, and run assignment rules at any point in a conversation. Other additions include downloadable conversation transcripts for both teammates and customers, and free developer workspaces for safe building and testing.


### [An Upstanding Brand: How Team Values Influence How We Work](https://yomu.fyi/post/an-upstanding-brand-how-team-values-influence-how-we-work.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Explainer

Intercom’s Brand Studio defines core values to guide behavior and decision-making without micromanagement as the team scales. The values answer four fundamental questions about why the team exists, what it does, how it behaves, and how it will succeed, and are written as reflections of who the team wants to be, not platitudes. Key values include building trust through vulnerability and inclusivity, making each other better through accountability and learning from diversity, and loving kind and open-minded people who reject mediocrity and are always kind. The values also emphasize supporting the mission, seeking to understand problems and each other, balancing art and science, and encouraging experimentation with considered risks and acceptance of failure. They are woven into branding, hiring, leveling, process work, and performance reviews to define success in expected behavior, and are intended to be discussed and evolved to help the team do the best work of their careers.


### [Sales Follow-Up Email: How to Automate in 3 Steps \[+ Setup Guide\]](https://yomu.fyi/post/sales-follow-up-email-how-to-automate-in-3-steps-setup-guide.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Tutorial

Sales teams often struggle to balance chasing large deals (big whales) with nurturing many small accounts (long tail). Intercom addressed this by automating sales follow-up for smaller accounts using Smart Campaigns. The three-step process involves segmenting leads into high-value large accounts with multiple stakeholders and long cycles, and high-velocity small accounts with single stakeholders and quick cycles; personalizing the first two touches using saved replies and product-specific templates; and then automating follow-up with campaign rules, goals, variables, cadence, and exit points, including removing leads who reply, start a trial, or become customers. Results include a nearly 50% response rate among previously unresponsive small accounts, an 8% increase in pipeline opportunities, and five hours saved per account executive weekly. The post also emphasizes keeping automated messages personal with emojis and gifs, and always adding value with case studies and demos.


### [Try Before You Buy: How Sales Can Maximize the Free Product Trial](https://yomu.fyi/post/try-before-you-buy-how-sales-can-maximize-the-free-product-trial.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Problem & solution

SaaS free trials are easy to start but low switching costs mean prospects can leave quickly, so maximizing trial success is critical; typical opt-in conversions are around 25% and opt-out around 60%. Intercom focuses on three pillars: understanding the prospect’s use case quickly, driving frequent and smart usage, and reducing in-trial friction through friendly support and onboarding. Sales reps engage trialists via live chat or in-app messages to learn their reasons and set expectations for the next two weeks, using internal notes to loop in support. Messages should be meaningful and triggered by prospect behavior to avoid fatigue, with in-app messaging preferred over email to keep users engaged in the product. Fast, collaborative communication between sales and support reduces time wasted on support requests and helps convert trials at higher rates, setting up customers for long-term success.


### [Convert more leads with our new HubSpot and Marketo apps - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/convert-more-leads-with-our-new-hubspot-and-marketo-apps-the-intercom.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Announcement

Intercom announced new HubSpot and Marketo apps that sync customer data to help sales and marketing teams nurture and convert more leads. The apps sync leads and conversations across tools, allowing teams to avoid switching tabs or losing sales opportunities. They integrate with Intercom’s Operator bot to automatically qualify and send leads to HubSpot, Marketo, or Salesforce, or manually send with one click. Users can view lead data from these tools by hovering over external profile links in Intercom Inbox, and basic information updates automatically. Every Intercom conversation is sent to the lead’s profile in HubSpot, Marketo, or Salesforce, providing a complete history of interactions for continued nurture campaigns.


### [5 new Intercom Messenger apps for seamless workflows](https://yomu.fyi/post/5-new-intercom-messenger-apps-for-seamless-workflows.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Announcement

Intercom launched a Messenger apps framework in April 2018, opening its Messenger to third-party developers for the first time and enabling quick actions inside conversations. Over 600 companies are now in the early access program building apps, and nearly 100 apps are available in the Intercom App Store. The post highlights five new apps: Daily.co enables video calls with no downloads or account required, Pinpoint lets candidates apply for open roles from the Messenger homescreen, Sherlock uses engagement scores to send more targeted messages, JustCall Direct provides one-click phone calls logged in customer profiles, and Upscope offers one-click co-browsing with screen drawing. These apps integrate directly into the Messenger, reducing friction by bringing external tool actions into conversations, as 1 in 7 conversations already included links to other tools. Intercom encourages customers and partners to build their own apps using the Messenger framework, providing developer docs and early access.


### [Want Your Support Team To Drive Revenue? Go Real Time.](https://yomu.fyi/post/want-your-support-team-to-drive-revenue-go-real-time.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Tutorial

Investing in real-time customer support can drive revenue and satisfaction, but scaling it requires careful operational planning. The team found that new customers were 30% more likely to start a trial after a swift first response, and they defined two key metrics: first response time (target under 2 minutes) and subsequent response time. They started by offering real-time support to 50% of new customers, recruiting tenured top performers as Project Leads to help roll out the experiment and identify effective workflows. Operational success depended on four elements: scheduling (using heatmaps of conversation volume and dedicated tools), tools (Intercom’s Messenger and Inbox), workflows (shifting from pass-back to 100% ownership), and communication (Slack channels for handovers and feedback). After refining qualification criteria based on rep feedback to exclude customers with previously activated apps, the team scaled real-time support to 100% of new customers within six months.


### [Product thinking: behind our new Messenger home screen - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/product-thinking-behind-our-new-messenger-home-screen-the-intercom-blo.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Announcement

Intercom launched a new Messenger home screen that replaces the previous utilitarian conversation list with a customizable app-based interface. The idea originated from observing customers building their own front-desk solutions and from internal experiments with knowledge base links that showed strong traction. The redesign was further motivated by data showing that 95% of conversation interaction occurs within 24 hours, making the old conversation list less valuable for returning users. The home screen hosts apps for self-service, sales, and support—such as article search, demo booking, Mailchimp subscriptions, Shopify order tracking, and Statuspage updates—and can show different apps for visitors versus signed-in users to avoid hard sells. This app framework was originally built for in-conversation use but was extended to the home screen, allowing businesses to tailor the Messenger as a versatile front desk that can be updated in under a minute.


### [Your Privacy Ecosystem Is Crucial In The Age Of GDPR - Inside](https://yomu.fyi/post/your-privacy-ecosystem-is-crucial-in-the-age-of-gdpr-inside.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Explainer

GDPR is a major regulatory change affecting all companies with EU customers globally, standardizing data handling and requiring legal justification for processing and user data rights. A privacy ecosystem includes all vendors and integrations sharing customer data, and the weakest link determines overall security, as a breach anywhere damages trust. Companies must invest in security programs with penetration testing, continuous monitoring, vulnerability disclosure, staff training, and a healthy paranoia about risks to protect against external attacks and data breaches. They should track and reduce unnecessary data access, choose vendors with contractual assurances and mature security, audit third-party providers regularly, and establish developer guidelines for integrations. Active communication and transparency about data storage, retention, and deletion are crucial for customer trust, and properly trained sales and support teams can turn GDPR compliance into a marketing differentiator.


### [A new dawn for the business messenger - The Intercom Blog](https://yomu.fyi/post/a-new-dawn-for-the-business-messenger-the-intercom-blog.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Announcement

Intercom released the biggest update to its Messenger, completely rethinking how a business messenger should work beyond chat. With over 500 million conversations per month, the company observed that in 1 in 7 conversations people shared links to other tools, prompting the redesign. The update introduces a customizable Home screen that acts as a front desk, directing prospective and existing customers to the best outcome, whether talking to a person or self-serving. Messenger apps integrate third-party tools like Stripe, Shopify, and Google Calendar directly into conversations, and businesses can build custom apps for their own workflows via a new App Store. Intercom believes messengers will become the primary communication channel for internet businesses, combining personal conversation with intelligent automation to scale communication, diverging from personal messengers in important ways.


### [How Live Chat Can Warm Up Your Cold Outbound Leads](https://yomu.fyi/post/how-live-chat-can-warm-up-your-cold-outbound-leads.md)
- Company: [Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom.md)
- Published: Oct 9, 2026
- Type: Tutorial

The post describes a technique that combines cold email outreach with live chat to avoid spammy follow-ups, based on research that leads are 82% more likely to convert after a chat. When a prospect clicks a link in a cold email, they receive a proactive Visitor Auto Message personalized with a unique UTM code, such as the author’s initials ‘?nml’. This turns outbound emails into inbound conversations, with near 100% open rates and over 25% reply rates, and allows scheduling demos in under five minutes. The post includes an example email citing Tradeshift’s success with live chat, reducing lead qualification days from 21 to 3 and increasing sales by 32%. It provides a step-by-step guide on setting this up in Intercom by creating UTM codes and triggering Visitor Auto Messages based on URL matches.


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