Integrate with an "Omnichannel" messaging tool like Crisp, Messagebird, Tawk.to

I’d like to suggest that it’s time to consider integration with another chat-oriented (and ticket management) tool, and I think Crisp may be the best choice, for a few reasons.

First, the recent integration of Hubspot is great, and it does add another chat system integration as part of the deal. However Hubspot, like Intercom, does not integrate with many other channels of communication, such as Telegram, Whatsapp, etc.

Additionally, it’s my understanding that in the medium-to-long-term Fibery will actually develop to encompass much of Hubspot’s CRM and support functionality including, eventually, email and possibly forum reply from within Fibery itself! However I have strong doubts there will ever be native support for e.g. Telegram in Fibery, and I don’t think the team should spend time on it either. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: So ultimately Fibery is destined to replace Hubspot for many customers, I think.

And that leads to point #2. As I mentioned, Intercom does not connect with numerous other messaging systems that are actively used by some teams. Hubspot connects with a few, but is not nearly as comprehensive as dedicated “omnichannel” tools like Crisp and Messagebird, with connections to Telegram, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook Messenger, and more.

So integrating Fibery with Crisp would add a unique, new capability: “Omnichannel”, i.e. the ability to ingest messages from a large range of different sources/apps/protocols. Depending on how the integration worked long-term, it might even allow for bi-directional functionality, i.e. messaging, through this wide variety of chat apps, which would be really cool. But just being able to ingest this info from many sources would be really cool and helpful for feedback aggregation, prioritization, etc.

I tested a bunch of different tools in this area recently. Hubspot and Crisp were the two main standouts, and Hubspot is already integrated. Crisp overlaps a bit with Hubspot, but clearly adds useful new functionality as well, and is a complementary tool that also integrates (exchanges contact info) with Hubspot. Crisp is also a more focused product than Hubspot is, being pretty specific to helpldesk-type functionality (although it does have basic mailing list tools as well).

There are also other “Omnichannel” solutions to consider. Messagebird, as I mentioned, which is probably my second choice as it’s similarly full-featured to Crisp. But I did prefer Crisp for a couple reasons, one being that it seems to be the only platform that actually supports Discord, which is increasingly used by small startup teams these days (Obsidian being a notable example).

I tried Rocketchat, but it seemed basically like a commercial implementation of Matrix. Powerful but techie. I doubt it will have as much adoption as Crisp or Messagebird:

Chatwoot is another option, but again less mature:

Or open source Matrix with “bridges”:

Crisp and Messagebird seem to be the more mature tools, and based on better technology. I see some concerns in RocketChat forums about its use of Meteor, for example. And although I don’t know which is more popular, I do think Crisp appears to be the most capable in terms of providing features that Fibery is unlikely to have any time soon (integration with many different communications channels, primarily). And pricing is good too (free for startups, like Fibery!). That said, I think Messagebird would be my second choice.

I’ll also mention (in an update here) that Tawk.to, supposedly the most popular live chat solution (probably because it’s totally free), is supposed to add “omnichannel” soon, with support for Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and more. That might be the obvious choice for a first integration given their popularity. They do already have Zapier integration, and I’m not sure they have an API that could actually be connected well with Fibery, but I thought I’d mention them since I recently found out about the apparent rankings I linked to above. :man_shrugging:

i am a big fan of Matrix/Element as central messaging combining LinkedIn, Whatsapp, Slack and many more. It would be amazing to integrate msgs from these channels into a Project Management tool to keep track of communication with certain clients or partners in a task/contact in fibery.

there is also now Beeper available as a free alternative. it is basically Matrix with a special Element Messenger on top. But without the self-hosting need like Matrix …

still matrix- integration or another way to get LinkedIn Msgs in would be a gamechanger.

does anyone else have communication in other tools than mail who needs integration? how are you doing this? are you using some external crm?

bumping this again as Beeper is now offering an SDK that would it maybe even possible to integrate in a more profound way … wanted to share that here is anyone is interested:

We’re excited to announce Beeper Widgets: a new way to do awesome things with chat!

Widgets are web apps shown inside Beeper that can interact with chat data, like reading messages, seeing participants, and sending or reacting to messages on your behalf. Our widgets are standard web apps built with React, so developers have full freedom to create any interface, interact with other services, and do anything else a website can.

Currently Widgets are only available in Beeper Desktop.

Developer info: https://github.com/beeper/sdk-docs/blob/main/Widgets.md

Widgets you can try out: https://github.com/beeper/sdk-docs/blob/main/Widgets.md#currently-available-widgets

Blog post: 🛠️ Build Widgets with Beeper - Beeper Blog

To chat about, get help, or share your latest Widget creation, join #beeper-sdk:beeper.com We’re excited to see what you build!

ALSO: n8n offers an integration with Matrix, so the integration with the fibery API and all other messengers that matrix can bridge is possible