Options for Client chat and communication for Portal Builds

Hey community, I wanted to see and get some feedback from builders and users as to what everyone has been using for client communication on their sites.

We're currently building out a mvp of a client portal to put in use, but I'm a bit stuck as to what to use for client communication. I know Retool has a way to use the built-in Intercom capability which we have for now. But the limitations of Intercom as a more direct communication platform like other chat options is a bit lacking. For ex. inability to archive messages or lack of title or subject lines for messages. We're a service based operation so having more clarity in the messages is needed.

Wondering if any utilizes any other options embedded in their builds currently? Or if perhaps people are using more simpler methods, like ui built out and simply using a database on backend for messages?

Any suggestions or feedback would really help out to sort out my analysis paralysis here.

EDIT: Also, reason to ask is I know currently one limitation with adding an embedded chat bubble icon on retool apps is that a custom component has to be used to display it, yet it will only be visible within the frame of that custom component. Which in itself can present its own problems.
Which is why Retool has the Intercom integration on the top layer via settings to add the necessary keys and ids to make it work.

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Hello @DannyF!

Sounds like an exciting and complex use case, I am hoping other users with more experience in this department chime in as there are a plethora of different ways to set this up without needing to use custom components.

Check out this video here were one of our team members sets up an OpenAI assistant for some ideas on how to leverage our current AI suite.

Also here are our docs for chat options and here are our docs for the chat component as well!

Also here is a video on using retool portals and retool embed I also found this cool video about how we built our partner portal!