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Intercom Articles

Learn how to translate your Intercom articles into multiple languages.

Ilya Krukowski avatar
Written by Ilya Krukowski
Updated over a week ago

This feature is available from the Pro plan and above.

The Intercom Articles app allows you to easily import articles and collections from Intercom into Lokalise for translation. Once translations are completed, you can export them back to Intercom with just a few clicks.

Getting started

Necessary permissions

To install and use the app, you need the following Intercom access rights:

  • Install, configure, and delete apps

  • Manage articles

Create Lokalise project

If you haven’t already, create a Marketing and support project in Lokalise.

Enter a project name, select the base and target languages, and choose Intercom Articles from the Content integration dropdown.

Click Create project to finalize the setup.


Install the app

To install the app, open your Marketing and support project on Lokalise and go to the Content management tab.

Click Install, then grant Lokalise permission to access your Intercom articles. The content import process should start automatically.

To fetch newly created content from Intercom at any time, click Refresh.


Importing from Intercom

This app also supports automated import. You can learn more Automated import/export article.

After setting up the app, you’ll see a list of your articles and collections available on Intercom. To translate these items, you need to import them. Simply select one or more items by ticking the checkboxes next to the titles, then click Import selected.

All languages available in Intercom but not yet in your Lokalise project will be created automatically.

Import options

After clicking Import selected, you can choose which languages to import and whether to update already downloaded items with Intercom values.

You’ll have two options to control this behavior:

  • Overwrite updated translations — this updates existing keys linked to Intercom items with new values.

  • Skip key creation for empty translations — if checked, Lokalise will not create translation keys for items that are empty on Intercom.

You can also assign tags to translation keys during this step. Once done, click OK to start the import. This process runs in the background, and you can track its progress on the Activity page.

Filtering items

You can filter items using the Filter dropdown to make navigation easier.

Note on character limits

Lokalise respects the character limits set in Intercom. However, if you change the character limit in Lokalise after importing, you’ll still be able to export a draft back to Intercom. Keep in mind, though, that you won’t be able to publish it in Intercom until the character count meets Intercom’s limit.

Importing updated content from Intercom

You can import updated content from Intercom for items that have already been downloaded to Lokalise. To do this:

  1. Open your Lokalise project and proceed to the Content management tab.

  2. Select one or more items you wish to import.

  3. Click Import selected to pull in the updated content from Intercom.


Adding new Intercom Articles languages

To add more languages to Intercom, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Articles > Help Center > Settings > Localize your Help Center.

  2. Click Add language and select the desired language from the dropdown.

View image

If you've added a new language to Intercom but haven’t created at least one article, collection, or section in that language, Lokalise won’t be able to properly sync it. This is due to Intercom's limitations. Lokalise cannot detect newly added languages unless they are linked to at least one article, section, or collection.

For example, if you’ve added Japanese, you need to assign it to at least one article before starting the import process:

View image


Working with the translation keys

Once the selected items are imported, you can manage them in the project editor. Translation keys created for these imported items will be tagged as follows:

  • Intercom Articles — assigned to all items imported by the Intercom Articles app.

  • Article — assigned to the keys that represent articles.

  • title — assigned to the keys that contain article titles.

  • description — assigned to the keys containing article or collection descriptions.

  • body — assigned to the keys containing article bodies (main text).

  • Collection — assigned to the keys that represent collections.

  • Section — assigned to the keys that represent sections.

  • name — assigned to the keys containing collection or section names.

Additionally, every key has a tag containing the item name (for collections) or title (for articles). For example, if a key contains the body of an article named "Hello", then this key will be assigned a Hello tag.

Please note that Intercom has length limitations for certain items (such as article titles, collection names, etc.). When performing translations, the maximum allowed length will be visible for you to ensure it meets Intercom’s limits.


Exporting to Intercom

This app also supports automated export. You can learn more in the Automated import/export article.

Once your translations are complete, it's time to export the new strings back to Intercom! Here's how to do it:

  1. Open your Lokalise project and proceed to the Content management tab.

  2. Select one or more items that you want to export.

  3. Click Export selected and choose the languages you wish to export.

If needed, you can choose to Convert the exported articles to drafts. Once you're ready, press OK, and the selected items will be uploaded to Intercom.

Empty translations will be ignored and won't be exported to Intercom.


Known limitations

The Intercom API has a few limitations when it comes to importing and exporting content:

  1. Image resizing: When importing images from Intercom, only the image source is preserved. This means the width and height information is stripped out. If you've manually resized images in an Intercom article, those custom sizes will be lost when importing the article to Lokalise, translating it, and exporting it back.

  2. Callouts and collapsibles: The Intercom API currently does not fully support callouts or collapsible elements. Articles containing these may not export correctly into Intercom. For more details on callout and collapsible support, check the Intercom forum.

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