Intercom assigns inbound support based on two settings on your Intercom user: Status and Availability. Both sit in your Profile menu, and you can change either one at any point during your shift.
Availability is set to All by default, meaning you can receive both conversations and phone calls, but never both at once. A phone call takes priority over a chat.
Intercom sets you to Away automatically after 90 minutes of inactivity. The timer measures activity in Intercom only, so working in another browser tab does not count.
Change your status and availability
To stop the flow of new work:
Click Profile at the bottom of the Intercom menu.
Turn on Away mode to stop new conversations and phone calls being assigned to you.
Turn on Reassign replies if you want replies on your open conversations and tickets to return to the team inbox.
Click Add reason to give context for your away status.
Click Availability, then deselect
All
Conversations (Email, Messenger, SMS)
Phone
📌 Note: Away mode only stops new work. You keep every conversation and ticket already assigned to you, unless you enable Reassign replies too.
To restart the flow of new work:
Click Profile at the bottom of the Intercom menu.
Turn off Away mode.
Click Availability, then select
All
Conversations (Email, Messenger, SMS)
Phone
For example, to receive phone calls only, set your status to Active and your availability to Phone.
⚠️ Important: Keep at least one browser tab open on your Intercom inbox for the whole of your shift. It does not need to be the active tab, but closing it stops calls and conversations reaching you.