As a designer I get headaches when I have to get to my previous support conversation. Chat -> Chat with customer support should just take me to the conversations screen instead of taking me to a new chat screen. Think about it? How many extra support tickets you will avoid by building a bit of logic that determines if a user has an open conversation. In terms of UX it would be a lot more logical. I will post more good suggestions because your app could do with a bit of work.
if I understand you correctly you want to go back to open conversations in chat - this function is in the chat app top left of the screen - arrow which takes you back to previous chats so you can continue them - i am sure Mondo will be pleased with some more good suggestions from you so they can improve their app
Yes, I figured that the arrow takes you to the conversations screen but that’s bad UX since the user didn’t enter chat from there. If you access chat from the home screen via the chat icon, you won’t even see the main conversations screen so you’ll naturally assume that by pressing back you’ll be taken to the home screen. It’s not logical and because of that people will miss the fact that you can actually access your previous conversations and therefore they’ll crate new ones about the same topic.
I could be wrong, but I believe the thinking behind it is when you go to ‘chat’ you have a new issue.
When you get a reply on an existing chat, there is a ‘head bubble’ in the lower left of the feed until you click on it. Clicking will take you directly to the opened ticket.
Yes, I agree with you that it’s not right yet.
The Intercom SDK we’re using is isn’t open-source (yet), so we’re struggling to customise it exactly the way we want. We’re working with Intercom to improve it.
We look forward to it 
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Hey all, Skyler here with Intercom 
We do have a goal to open source the Intercom SDKs for Android and iOS but it’s not on our immediate roadmap due to several non-nefarious reasons. Until then, I want to ensure you know that there are a couple of methods you can use to display the Intercom in-app messenger:
For iOS:
[Intercom presentMessageComposer];-
[Intercom presentConversationList];
from Configuring Intercom for iOS
For Android:
Intercom.client().displayMessageComposer();-
Intercom.client().displayConversationsList();
from Configuring Intercom for Android
You can certainly use this second method to present the conversation list instead of a new conversation if desired.
If you have any other questions or feature requests, feel free to get in touch with us through the Intercom in-app messenger at intercom.io, or email team@intercom.io
Cheers, Skyler
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If they’re non-nefarious, it would be very nice to have some insight into what the reasons are, given how important this is to so many companies/people.
In fact, Intercom is the only closed source library in our entire app. It stays there only because it has proven to be pretty fantastic so far…
It doesn’t seem that there’s been any progress on improving Intercom in the past 18 months, and I have to say that it sticks out because the rest of the Monzo app is so slick and friction-free. Intercom, on the other hand, always feels like a hassle to use. In no particular order, issue I have with it:
- As discussed above, the navigation is counterintuitive. Even after using it for months, I sometimes hit the wrong button and go back instead of getting out of the chat system, or vice-versa. Back often doesn’t take you where you’ve come from.
- Email replies don’t get inserted into the thread on the app
- New message notifications are inconsistent, and sometimes don’t take you to the chat, just to the transaction list with no new message indicator on the ‘Help’ tab
- It’s slow
- When inserting a screenshot, the Send button is overlaid, in white, onto the screenshot. Since there’s a lot of white in Monzo’s screens, the Send button is often difficult or impossible to see (the first time I tried to submit a screenshot, I couldn’t figure it out).
- Can’t copy text (or images)
- No way to have a transcript emailed, so basically no way to keep a record of a conversation
Overall, Intercom definitely feels bolted on, as opposed to a native part of the Monzo app, and it lets the rest of the excellent support (and app) down.
I realise there’s a lot going on at the moment (!), but am wondering if there are there still plans to improve the chat/support system in the app? Whether that’s an improved Intercom, or a Monzo-developed system, doesn’t matter to me. But it would be nice if it was as smooth and well-designed as the rest of the Monzo experience.
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