Home Canned responses for Intercom

how to create canned responses and macros in intercom

Intercom + Typedesk
canned responses you can reuse everywhere

Support agents in Intercom answer the same questions hundreds of times a week. Intercom has native macros (formerly saved replies), but they only work inside Intercom. Typedesk lets you save each answer once and drop it into a conversation by typing a short shortcut like /refund or /shipping, and it works in Intercom and every other app your team uses. This page shows how the Typedesk integration works with Intercom and where it goes beyond native macros.

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How to create canned responses in Intercom

Intercom has native macros with a keyboard shortcut, sharing, and search, but they stay inside Intercom. Here is the native method, and the faster, more flexible way with Typedesk.

Without Typedesk

For reference, here is the native method. Intercom macros support a \ or # shortcut, workspace and team sharing, and search, but they stay inside Intercom.

With Typedesk

Typedesk runs through the browser extension, so it works directly inside the Intercom inbox and everywhere else you type.

In Settings, open Macros and create a new macro with a title and message.

Scope it to the whole workspace, a team, or just yourself.

In the Inbox, type \ or # and part of the macro name to insert it.

Because macros remain tied to the Intercom Inbox, you cannot use them as a general template library across unrelated apps.

Save your standard answers in Typedesk, each with a short shortcut like /refund.

Open an Intercom conversation and type the shortcut in the composer.

The full response expands instantly, ready to send or edit.

typedesk + Intercom

Why Intercom agents rely on canned responses

Reply speed and a consistent voice are the whole job in support. Customers want a fast, correct answer, and agents want to stop retyping the same reply. Intercom has native macros with a \ or # shortcut, workspace and team sharing, and search, but Intercom macros work across conversations handled inside Intercom, including email, and do not follow an agent into unrelated apps.

Template ideas for Intercom support:

Refund, billing, and cancellation answers.
Troubleshooting steps for your top recurring issues.
Onboarding and how-to replies.
Friendly openers and closers that keep tone consistent.

How it works

Set up Typedesk once and reuse your Intercom replies everywhere you work.

Install the Typedesk browser extension, plus the desktop app for Windows or Mac.

Save your most-used Intercom answers as templates, each with a short shortcut like /refund or /shipping.

In an Intercom conversation, type the shortcut in the composer and the full response expands instantly.

One library beyond Intercom

Native macros stop at Intercom. Typedesk keeps a single library, so the same replies work in Intercom, email, Slack, and any web form. Update the wording once, and it updates everywhere, and teams can share one approved library so everyone stays on-brand.

Your Intercom replies, with superpowers!

Typedesk text expander takes Intercom macros further, with fill-in fields and use beyond Intercom.

Fill in details as you type

Intercom macros auto-populate saved attributes. Typedesk adds fields you complete as the template expands, for order numbers, dates, or anything not stored in Intercom.

Works beyond Intercom, in every app

Typedesk replies work in the Intercom inbox and in email, Slack, and every other app your team uses, all from one library.

Share one reply library with your team

Keep every approved answer in a single shared library so your whole team replies consistently, with central updates pushed to everyone.

Insert any reply with a shortcut

Type a short shortcut like /refund and the full response expands right in the Intercom composer, and the same shortcut works everywhere else too.

Take Intercom macros to a new level

The most versatile way to create and reuse replies in Intercom

Features

Create templates with custom fill-in fields

Share templates with teammates

Insert templates with a text shortcut

Search templates by keyword

Organize templates into folders

Reuse the same templates across apps

Comparison covers the built-in reusable-message features available in each product's standard interface. Optional add-ins, mobile keyboards, developer APIs, and third-party tools are excluded.

Intercom macros populate saved user and company attributes automatically; Typedesk adds fields you fill in as you type and lets you reuse the same replies across every app, not just Intercom.

Reply faster in Intercom

Load your most-used answers into Typedesk, assign a shortcut to each, and let your agents reply in seconds while staying on-brand.

I love typedesk! It is by far one of my favourite tools to have in our tech stack.

Pip Meecham

Tech Advisor & ClickUp Channel Partner

We use typedesk to ensure that communications remain aligned and uniform across all our channels as our company scales up.

Michael Johnson

Senior Certification Specialist, HighLevel

This software is unreal. It's like having a ChatGPT writing assistant on every single app I use and having all the prompts I can create at my fingertips.

Michael Montefusco

Founder, Fitness Marketing Machine

This app is a phenomenal tool.

David Shutler

Senior Recruitment Consultant

While our help desk does provide saved answers, I use typedesk to maintain a personal voice in my canned responses quickly and efficiently.

Melanie Shears

Finance & People Operations, Customer Billing Specialist, Helpscout

Typedesk it’s truly a timesaver when it comes to writing. Whatever task you’re on, you know you have Typedesk’s backup. I wouldn’t know what I would do without it now!

Sean Eruppakkattu

Physicist

Typdesk is a cross-platform tool that is highly valued by its developers and receives frequent updates. Although I sometimes encounter problems with new updates, the responsive team promptly fixes them. Overall, my experience with Typdesk has been excellent.

Natasha

HR Manager interested in upscaling orgs

Simply the best time saving app, easy to use and implement and very lightweight

Jamie Forster

@jamie_forster

This is an amazing tool I have been using for about a year now. The latest version is super fast. I can prepare all the canned messages I usually use (I'm sure your like me and often use the same sentences ;). SO, it's a big THUMBS UP for Typedesk !

Ghislain DEMONDA

Everlasting learner

Use for product support where repetitive replies are not as simple as using an FAQ. Easy to paste and then edit to suit individual questions. Timesaver as well as brain saver!

J GW

Really useful. easy to use everyday

Greg Petithomme

@greg_petithomme

i been using typedesk for several years, since 2021, i would say the software is great, i have windows/mac they sync perfectly, this is one of the software that i use everyday, it saves much of my time on thinking on how to answer clients, i have my FAQ in typedesk, i just search it and copy/paste into my support desks. i love it has a search function, and i can share the answers with my co-workers. so they save time on answering FAQs.

李鼎嘉

@new_user_74d7929319

Typedesk is an automation tool for canned responses that can help increase efficiency and productivity in customer support. With this tool, agents can create and save predefined responses for common questions, allowing them to quickly respond to customers without having to type the same response over and over again. Typedesk is especially useful for those who work in customer support or similar roles where they receive many similar questions. Users can organize their responses into categories for easy searching and retrieval, and they can also customize their responses with replacement fields to tailor them to each specific case.

Tony Wiljanden

@tony_wiljanden

Brilliant text expander. Highly recommended for personal or team use.

Marcelo Bacchi

@marcelo_bacchi1

I have been using Typedesk for a few months, and it has saved me so much time and allowed me to send out constant messages effortlessly!

Tor Jones

Backpack is filled with colored pencils.

Fantastic tool for Content Creators or small Social media teams to interact across social media. Respond quickly and at scale to incoming and outgoing DM's. Great for fast Email responses. Perfect tool for answering similar questions. Team Folders is fantastic and it's the reason you should stack this offer. Get it. It saves so much time and effort.

pintofoptimism

After trying others, looking at how they worked (or didn't), and looking at their features and prices I realized, this is one sweet deal. Its clean, simple and does its job. Support is quick to reply. Thank you.

woodennickel

We're loving typedesk! It's easy to use, and saves us tons of time when it comes to sending emails to our customers. The variables work well, although we wish we could have alternate email addresses assigned to each user and be able to use them in variables.

sebfontan

Great tool, thank you - love the structure, grouping of type of responses, easy to create ones.

ateleguz

Typedesk is perfect for when you need to get responses out quickly and don't want to have a messy doc open in another window. You can organize all your canned responses easily and retrieve them quickly! Try it out, you'll love it!

Nik_D

Hi, I was really happy with the use of another Text expander tool (FastKeys) so I was skipping this, but luckily I checked it out. Hey, what the heck.

EZnl

Anyone that values their time should use a text expander solution.

Sumo-ling

We are a niche service industry and we get a bunch of leads and let me just say that takes up a lot of time when we could be using canned responses like a pro with typedesk. The idea is to free up time in responding so we all could use help with that I imagine. It pays for itself.

kor44

One of the best purchases on Appsumo!

iamsam

This software is perfect and a time saver. I've added loads in there today and have already used it multiple time's. This is a must buy 👌👌👌

darren07

Trusted by 15,000+ teams worldwide

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about Intercom canned responses and macros.

Visit learning center

Does Intercom have canned responses?

Yes. Intercom has native macros (formerly saved replies) with a \ or # shortcut, sharing, and search, but they only work inside Intercom. Typedesk adds fill-in fields and use across every app.

How is Typedesk different from Intercom macros?

Intercom macros live inside Intercom and auto-populate saved attributes. Typedesk uses one library that works in Intercom and every other app, and adds fields you fill in as you type.