react-use-intercom

A React Intercom integration powered by hooks.

Features

• Hooks
• Written in TypeScript
• Documented, self explaining methods
• Tiny size without any external libraries
• Safeguard for SSR environments (NextJS, Gatsby)

Installation

yarn add react-use-intercom

Quickstart

import*asReactfrom'react';import{IntercomProvider,useIntercom}from'react-use-intercom';constINTERCOM_APP_ID='your-intercom-app-id';constApp=()=>(<IntercomProviderappId={INTERCOM_APP_ID}><HomePage/></IntercomProvider>);// Anywhere in your appconstHomePage=()=>{const{ boot, shutdown, hide, show, update }=useIntercom();return<buttononClick={boot}>Boot intercom! ☎️</button>;};

Links

• API
• Playground
• Examples
• TypeScript
• Troubleshoot
• Advanced

API

• IntercomProvider
• useIntercom
• IntercomProps

IntercomProvider

IntercomProvider is used to initialize the window.Intercom instance. It makes sure the initialization is only done once. If any listeners are passed, the IntercomProvider will make sure these are attached.

Place the IntercomProvider as high as possible in your application. This will make sure you can call useIntercom anywhere.

Props

name	type	description	required	default
appId	string	app ID of your Intercom instance	true
children	React.ReactNode	React children	true
autoBoot	boolean	indicates if Intercom should be automatically booted. If true no need to call boot, the IntercomProvider will call it for you	false	false
onHide	() => void	triggered when the Messenger hides	false
onShow	() => void	triggered when the Messenger shows	false
onUnreadCountChange	(number) => void	triggered when the current number of unread messages changes	false
shouldInitialize	boolean	indicates if the Intercom should be initialized. Can be used in multistaged environment	false	true
apiBase	string	If you need to route your Messenger requests through a different endpoint than the default. Generally speaking, this is not needed. Format: https://${INTERCOM_APP_ID}.intercom-messenger.com (See: devrnt#96)	false

Example

constApp=()=>{const[unreadMessagesCount,setUnreadMessagesCount]=React.useState(0);constonHide=()=>console.log('Intercom did hide the Messenger');constonShow=()=>console.log('Intercom did show the Messenger');constonUnreadCountChange=(amount: number)=>{console.log('Intercom has a new unread message');setUnreadMessagesCount(amount);};return(<IntercomProviderappId={INTERCOM_APP_ID}onHide={onHide}onShow={onShow}onUnreadCountChange={onUnreadCountChange}autoBoot><p>Hi there, I am a child of the IntercomProvider</p></IntercomProvider>);};

useIntercom

Used to retrieve all methods bundled with Intercom. These are based on the official Intercom docs. Some extra methods were added to improve convenience.

Make sure IntercomProvider is wrapped around your component when calling useIntercom().

Remark - You can't use useIntercom() in the same component where IntercomProvider is initialized.

Methods

name	type	description
boot	(props?: IntercomProps) => void	boots the Intercom instance, not needed if autoBoot in IntercomProvider is true
shutdown	() => void	shuts down the Intercom instance
hardShutdown	() => void	same functionality as shutdown, but makes sure the Intercom cookies, window.Intercom and window.intercomSettings are removed.
update	(props?: IntercomProps) => void	updates the Intercom instance with the supplied props. To initiate a 'ping', call update without props
hide	() => void	hides the Messenger, will call onHide if supplied to IntercomProvider
show	() => void	shows the Messenger, will call onShow if supplied to IntercomProvider
showMessages	() => void	shows the Messenger with the message list
showNewMessages	(content?: string) => void	shows the Messenger as if a new conversation was just created. If content is passed, it will fill in the message composer
getVisitorId	() => string	gets the visitor id
startTour	(tourId: number) => void	starts a tour based on the tourId
trackEvent	(event: string, metaData?: object) => void	submits an event with optional metaData

Example

import*asReactfrom'react';import{IntercomProvider,useIntercom}from'react-use-intercom';constINTERCOM_APP_ID='your-intercom-app-id';constApp=()=>(<IntercomProviderappId={INTERCOM_APP_ID}><HomePage/></IntercomProvider>);constHomePage=()=>{const{
boot,
shutdown,
hardShutdown,
update,
hide,
show,
showMessages,
showNewMessages,
getVisitorId,
startTour,
trackEvent,}=useIntercom();constbootWithProps=()=>boot({name: 'Russo'});constupdateWithProps=()=>update({name: 'Ossur'});consthandleNewMessages=()=>showNewMessages();consthandleNewMessagesWithContent=()=>showNewMessages('content');consthandleGetVisitorId=()=>console.log(getVisitorId());consthandleStartTour=()=>startTour(123);consthandleTrackEvent=()=>trackEvent('invited-friend');consthandleTrackEventWithMetaData=()=>trackEvent('invited-frind',{name: 'Russo',});return(<><buttononClick={boot}>Boot intercom</button><buttononClick={bootWithProps}>Boot with props</button><buttononClick={shutdown}>Shutdown</button><buttononClick={hardShutdown}>Hard shutdown</button><buttononClick={update}>Update clean session</button><buttononClick={updateWithProps}>Update session with props</button><buttononClick={show}>Show messages</button><buttononClick={hide}>Hide messages</button><buttononClick={showMessages}>Show message list</button><buttononClick={handleNewMessages}>Show new messages</button><buttononClick={handleNewMessagesWithContent}>
Show new message with pre-filled content
</button><buttononClick={handleGetVisitorId}>Get visitor id</button><buttononClick={handleStartTour}>Start tour</button><buttononClick={handleTrackEvent}>Track event</button><buttononClick={handleTrackEventWithMetaData}>
Track event with metadata
</button></>);};

IntercomProps

All the Intercom default attributes/props are camel cased (appId instead of app_id) in react-use-intercom, see IntercomProps to see what attributes you can pass to boot or update. Or check the Intercom docs to see all the available attributes/props.

Remark - all the listed Intercom attributes here are snake cased, in react-use-intercom are these camel cased.

Custom attributes

Still want to pass custom attributes to Intercom? Whether boot or update is used, you can add your custom properties by passing these through customAttributes in the boot or update method.

Remark - the keys of the customAttributes object should be snake cased (this is how Intercom wants them). They are rawly passed to Intercom.

const{ boot }=useIntercom();boot({name: 'Russo',customAttributes: {custom_attribute_key: 'hi there'},})

Playground

Small playground to showcase the functionalities of react-use-intercom.

useIntercom

https://devrnt.github.io/react-use-intercom/#/useIntercom

useIntercom (with Intercom tour)

https://devrnt.github.io/react-use-intercom/#/useIntercomTour

Examples

Go to examples to check out some integrations (Gatsby, NextJS...).

TypeScript

All the possible pre-defined options to pass to the Intercom instance are typed. So whenever you have to pass IntercomProps, all the possible properties will be available out of the box. These props are JavaScript 'friendly', so camelCase. No need to pass the props with snake_cased keys.

Remark - if you want to pass custom properties, you should still use snake_cased keys.

Troubleshoot

• I'm seeing Please wrap your component with IntercomProvider in the console.

Make sure IntercomProvider is initialized before calling useIntercom(). You only need to initialize IntercomProvider once. It is advised to initialize IntercomProvider as high as possible in your application tree.

Make sure you aren't calling useIntercom() in the same component where you initialized IntercomProvider.

• I'm seeing Some invalid props were passed to IntercomProvider. Please check following props: [properties] in the console.

Make sure you're passing the correct properties to the IntercomProvider. Check IntercomProvider to see all the properties. Mind that all the properties in react-use-intercom are camel cased, except for the customAttributes property in the boot and update method from useIntercom.

Advanced

To reduce the amount of re-renders in your React application I suggest to make use of useCallback

TLDR:useCallback will return a memoized version of the callback that only changes if one of the dependencies has changed.

This can be applied to both the IntercomProvider events and the useIntercom methods. It depends on how many times your main app gets re-rendered.

Example

import*asReactfrom'react';import{IntercomProvider,useIntercom}from'react-use-intercom';constINTERCOM_APP_ID='your-intercom-app-id';constApp=()=>{// const onHide = () => console.log('Intercom did hide the Messenger');constonHide=React.useCallback(()=>console.log('Intercom did hide the Messenger'),[],);return(<IntercomProviderappId={INTERCOM_APP_ID}onHide={onHide}><HomePage/></IntercomProvider>);};constHomePage=()=>{const{ boot }=useIntercom();// const bootWithProps = () => boot({ name: 'Russo' });constbootWithProps=React.useCallback(()=>boot({name: 'Russo'}),[boot]);return<buttononClick={bootWithProps}>Boot with props</button>;};