Many teams love Intercom's inbox but not paying for its help center, or want articles that keep up with the product. You don't have to move everything at once: the help center can move to usedocs while chat stays where it is. Here's how.

What moves

  • Published articles. Every published article, with title, body, and description. Articles that aren't published in Intercom are skipped.
  • Old URLs become redirects. Each article's Intercom address is saved and its path becomes a redirect to the new article on your domain.
  • Collections, with the website import. The token import places articles in one collection to sort afterwards. The website import builds collections from your URL folders.
  • Conversations, if you want them. Separately, you can import Intercom conversations so the questions customers asked seed your list of missing articles.

Steps

  1. Get an Intercom access token. In Intercom's Developer Hub, create an app for your workspace and copy its access token. Skip this if you'll import from the public site.
  2. Start the import. In the usedocs dashboard, open Help center, then Import, choose Intercom, and paste the token. Or choose Any docs site and paste your public help center URL.
  3. Review the drafts. Articles arrive as drafts. Sort them into collections, re-add images if you used the token import, and publish.
  4. Turn on the assistant in your app. Add the usedocs widget or link the help center from the Intercom Messenger, and connect GitHub so merged pull requests propose edits.
  5. Point your help center domain at usedocs. If your help center is on your own domain, point it at usedocs (custom domains are on Growth). Old article paths redirect to the new pages. Update the help center link in your Intercom Messenger.

After the import

With the help center on usedocs, the assistant answers from your articles with a link to the source, on a flat plan instead of a fee per resolution, and says so when the articles don't cover a question. Those misses, plus any Intercom conversations you import, become ranked gaps with drafted articles. Connect GitHub and merged pull requests propose edits to the articles they affect, so the answers stay right after each release. You approve everything in one queue.

Good to know

  • Up to 100 articles per import run.
  • Images: the website import keeps images as links to where they're hosted today, so re-upload any you need before you close the old account. The Intercom API import brings text, headings, lists, links, and code, but not images or tables.
  • The token import places all articles in one collection; organize them before publishing.
  • Article audience targeting stays in Intercom; use private collections in usedocs for content only signed in customers should see.