New Conversations Today, Intercom

Count of Intercom conversations created since midnight today — the day’s inbound support volume so far. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it.

Metrics type: Supporting Metrics • Category: Customer support

The number of new conversations created in Intercom since the start of today — the day’s inbound support volume so far.

At a glance

New Conversations Today is a running count of how many support conversations have opened since midnight. It is the demand-side pulse of the desk: how much is coming in today, regardless of how much has been cleared. Blitz’s support lead glances at it through the day to gauge whether it is a normal day or a busy one, and to decide whether to pull in extra cover. Paired with the backlog and closed-volume cards, it tells you whether you are keeping pace with what is arriving.

What it counts	Conversations with a created_at timestamp on or after the start of the current day, counted across the whole workspace. New conversations only — replies on existing ones do not increment it.
Sample type	Real-time. Read live from the Conversations API filtered to today’s created_at.
Why it matters	It is the earliest signal of how heavy a day is going to be. A morning that is already running well above your typical inbound is your cue to add cover before the backlog and first-response cards start to slip in the afternoon.
Reading the value	A running total that resets at midnight, so it only ever climbs through the day. Read it against your normal daily pattern for the same time of day rather than against zero. There is no alert threshold on this card; for spike detection use Volume Spike.
Currency	number
Time window	T
Alert trigger	—
Sentiment key	—
Roles	owner, operations

Calculation

Vortex IQ queries the Conversations search endpoint for conversations whose created_at falls on or after the start of the current day in your reporting time zone, and counts them. It is a pure inbound count: a conversation is counted once when it is created and does not move if it is later replied to, snoozed or closed. The day boundary follows the Vortex IQ profile time zone, so confirm that matches your Intercom workspace time zone if you compare against Intercom’s own “today” views.

Worked example

A representative reading of New Conversations Today for Blitz. By 11am the card shows 46. The support lead knows a normal morning runs around 25 by this hour, so today is nearly double. A quick look at Top Topics shows most of the new conversations carry the “order status” tag — a courier’s tracking page is down, so customers are asking the team where their parcels are instead. Rather than answer each one, the lead posts a banner in the Messenger and a pinned saved reply, which deflects the rest of the wave. Without acting on the early signal, those 46-and-climbing conversations would have hit the afternoon backlog and slowed first-response for everyone. To confirm the surge is genuinely abnormal, open Volume Spike; to see the shape of the day, open Conversation Volume by Hour. Ask Viq can answer “is today’s inbound volume unusual?” directly.

Sibling cards merchants should reference together

Card	Why merchants reach for it
ic_new_vs_closed	Pairs today’s inbound with how much you have closed, showing whether you are keeping pace.
ic_volume_trend	Plots daily volume over 30 days so today’s count has context.
ic_alert_volume_spike	Flags when today’s inbound is statistically abnormal versus your baseline.
ic_busiest_hours	Shows the hour-by-hour shape so you can staff the peaks.
ic_open_conversations	Today’s inbound becomes tomorrow’s backlog if it is not cleared.

Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look in Intercom’s own dashboard:

In Reports → Conversations, set the date range to “Today” and read the new/created conversations count. The Inbox also shows recently created conversations, though it does not present a clean daily total. Match the report’s date range and time zone to compare against this card.

Why the Vortex IQ value may legitimately differ:

Reason	Direction	What to do
Day boundary / time zone. “Today” starts at midnight in the reporting time zone; if Intercom uses a different workspace time zone, the cut-off differs.	Variable	Confirm the time zone match.
New vs replied. This counts only newly created conversations; an Intercom view that counts activity or replies will be higher.	Intercom view higher	Filter Intercom to created/new conversations.
Refresh timing. The card is real-time but reads on a short cycle; a just-created conversation may take a moment to appear.	Vortex IQ marginally lower	Re-read after the next refresh.
Channel scope. All source channels are counted together; an Intercom view filtered to one channel will be lower.	Intercom view lower	Remove the channel filter, or compare per channel via Volume by Channel.

Cross-connector reconciliation: when a commerce sibling is connected, normalise today’s inbound against order volume using Support Contacts per 100 Orders to tell a busy day from a problem day. For divergence investigations, use Vortex Mind.

Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Q: How often does New Conversations Today update? It is a real-time card, read on a short cycle through the day, and resets to zero at midnight in your reporting time zone.

Q: Why does my Intercom report show a different number for today? Usually the day boundary / time-zone cut-off, or that the Intercom view is counting replies and activity rather than only newly created conversations. Align both.

Q: Does this count replies on existing conversations? No. It only counts conversations created today. Reply depth is on Avg Replies per Conversation.

Q: Why is there no alert on this card? A raw daily count climbs all day, so a fixed threshold would be meaningless. Spike detection lives on Volume Spike, which compares today against your statistical baseline.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

New Conversations Today is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Intercom and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English.

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