GTM AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Customer › September 2026 Edition

In-app messaging and customer communications

Asked as “in-app messaging platform”, and as “customer communications tool for product messaging”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 44 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Intercom
Contested
20% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 73 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessOneSignal17%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketIntercom20%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseIntercom23%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Intercom20%24%38accepted challenger
02Userpilot16%9%32accepted challenger
03OneSignal11%14%28accepted challenger
04Customer.io5%6%16accepted challenger
05Product Fruits5%0%12accepted challenger
06Pushwoosh5%10%10accepted challenger
07Appcues2%23%35accepted challenger
08Pendo2%28%18criticized challenger
09Braze2%38%26criticized challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
15Sendbird0%38%13criticized challenger
12Chameleon0%21%14accepted challenger
14MoEngage0%21%14accepted challenger
13CleverTap0%20%15accepted challenger
11UserGuiding0%15%13accepted challenger
10CometChat0%5%20accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Intercom vs UserpilotIntercom vs OneSignalUserpilot vs OneSignal

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Intercom20%
02Userpilot16%
03OneSignal11%
04Customer.io5%
05Product Fruits5%
06Pushwoosh5%
07Appcues2%
08Pendo2%
09Braze2%
10CometChat0%
11UserGuiding0%
12Chameleon0%
13CleverTap0%
14MoEngage0%
15Sendbird0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Braze
38%
10 of 26 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Sources repeatedly flag **Braze, Airship, CleverTap, Iterable, and often MoEngage** as platforms to avoid initially” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
WhatsApp
88%
7 of 8 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Using free, consumer-grade messaging apps to interact with users inside a business context poses severe security risks.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Intercom
24%
9 of 38 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“If you are a small-to-medium business on a tight or predictable budget, avoid Intercom's default AI tiers.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Facebook Messenger
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Ranked lowest (22.22/100) in Kaspersky's 2025 privacy ratings, collecting the most data among major messaging apps” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

21 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 191 links across 104 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

userpilot.com
vendor site · Userpilot8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
knock.app
vendor site · Knock7 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
hellyeahai.com
7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
pushwoosh.com
vendor site · Pushwoosh6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
productfruits.com
vendor site · Product Fruits6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
twixor.ai
6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
helply.com
vendor site · Helply5 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
gitnux.org
5 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
chatbase.co
vendor site · Chatbase4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
dupple.com
4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
gleap.io
vendor site · Gleap4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
getvero.com
vendor site · GetVero3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

hellyeahai.com/blog/best-in-app-messaging-platform
7 answers · 2 models
knock.app/blog/the-top-in-app-messaging-tools
7 answers · 2 models
productfruits.com/blog/best-in-app-messaging-platforms
6 answers · 2 models
pushwoosh.com/blog/best-in-app-messaging-platforms
6 answers · 2 models
twixor.ai/blog/in-app-messaging-software
6 answers · 2 models
userpilot.com/blog/in-app-messaging-tools
6 answers · 2 models
helply.com/blog/10-best-customer-messaging-tools-for-businesses
5 answers · 2 models
chatbase.co/blog/customer-messaging-tools
4 answers · 2 models
dupple.com/learn/best-in-app-messaging-tools
4 answers · 1 model
gitnux.org/best/in-app-messaging-software
4 answers · 1 model

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best in-app messaging platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer communications tool for product messaging would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top in-app messaging platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best in-app messaging platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an in-app messaging platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which in-app messaging platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Intercom
Three alternativesCustomer.io, Product Fruits, Userpilot
Drift, HelplyChangedagainst: IntercomProduct Fruits
Seven alternativesAppcues, Braze, Chameleon, CleverTap, CometChat, MoEngage, UserGuiding
OneSignal
Two alternativesFirebase, Product Fruits
against: MoEngageno first choiceagainst: Facebook Messenger, LINE, WhatsApp
GPT-5.4 miniAppcues
Three alternativesIntercom, Pendo, Userpilot
IntercomChanged
Two alternativesAppcues, Pendo
Braze
Five alternativesAirship, Amazon Pinpoint / AWS End User Messaging, Customer.io, Firebase In-App Messaging, OneSignal
Crisp
One alternativeUserpilot
against: Appcues, Intercomno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashCustomer.io, Gleap, Userpilot
Two alternativesFront, Userflow
against: Appcues, Braze, IntercomCustomer.io, Intercom, UserpilotChanged
Two alternativesChameleon, Gleap
against: Appcues, Braze, PendoStream
Seven alternativesAppcues, Braze, CometChat, Customer.io, OneSignal, Sendbird, Userpilot
GetStream, tawk.to
Seven alternativesCometChat, Crisp.chat, Firebase, HubSpot Live Chat, OneSignal, Product Fruits, UserGuiding
against: Appcues, Intercom, Userpilotno first choiceagainst: GB WhatsApp, Intercom, Kik, Salesforce Service Cloud, Sendbird, Telegram, Twilio Programmable Chat, WhatsApp, Zendesk
Perplexity SonarIntercom
Two alternativesAppcues, Userpilot
FrontChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Intercom
no first choice
Ten alternativesAppcues, Braze, Chameleon, CleverTap, Firebase In-App Messaging, Intercom, MoEngage, OneSignal, Pendo, Userpilot
OneSignal
Two alternativesUserGuiding, Zoho Cliq
against: Intercomno first choiceagainst: Airship, Appcues, Braze, CleverTap, Customer.io, Iterable, MoEngage, Pendo, Userpilot
Grok 4.1 FastStream Chat
Two alternativesCometChat, Intercom
against: SendbirdIntercomChanged
Three alternativesCustomer.io, Front, Helply
Braze, CometChat
One alternativeIntercom
Tencent RTC Chat
Four alternativesCometChat, Firebase, PubNub, Stream Chat
against: Agora, Rocket.Chat, Sendbird, Twilio ConversationsBraze, Intercom
Two alternativesAppcues, Userpilot
against: OneSignal, Pushwooshagainst: Chat & Ask AI, Discord, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Telegram, WhatsApp
Mistral SmallUserpilot
Two alternativesIntercom, Product Fruits
against: AppcuesFrontChanged
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, Intercom, Zendesk
no first choice
Eight alternativesAppcues, Braze, CometChat, Intercom, OneSignal, Pushwoosh, Twilio Conversations, Userpilot
against: Chameleon, CleverTap, MoEngage, UserGuidingOneSignal
Three alternativesGleap, Product Fruits, Tencent RTC
against: Appcues, Brazeno first choiceagainst: Discord, Facebook Messenger, LINE, Snapchat, Telegram, WeChat, WhatsApp
DeepSeek V4 FlashIntercom
Four alternativesAppcues, Chameleon, Gleap, Userpilot
against: PendoUserpilotChanged
Two alternativesAppcues, Customer.io
against: AnnounceKit, Beamer, Braze, Intercom, Pendono first choice
Eleven alternativesAppcues, Braze, Chameleon, CleverTap, CometChat, MirrorFly, MoEngage, Stream, TalkJS, Twilio Conversations, Userpilot
against: IntercomTencent RTC Chat
Five alternativesCometChat, GetStream, OneSignal, PubNub, UserGuiding
against: Intercom, Sendbirdno first choiceagainst: CometChat, PubNub, Rocket.Chat, Sendbird, TalkJS, Twilio Conversations
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceFrontChanged
Four alternativesHelp Scout, Heyy.io, Intercom, Zoho Desk
no first choiceTencent RTC
Two alternativesCustomer.io, OneSignal
no first choiceagainst: Appcues, Braze, Chameleon, CleverTap, OneSignal, UserGuiding
Qwen 3.7 FlashIntercom, Product Fruits
Two alternativesAppcues, Userpilot
against: DriftIntercomChanged
Two alternativesAppcues, Customer.io
against: Airship, BrazeAppcues, Userpilot
Eight alternativesBraze, Chameleon, CleverTap, CometChat, Firebase, Intercom, OneSignal, Twilio Conversations
Pushwoosh
Five alternativesGetStream.io, OneSignal, Tencent RTC, Zoho SalesIQ, tawk.to
against: Airship, Brazeno first choiceagainst: Bird, Sinch, TikTok/Instagram Native Integration Tools
Kimi K2Userpilot
Two alternativesAppcues, Pendo
PendoChanged
Three alternativesGainsight PX, Intercom, Userpilot
no first choiceOneSignal
Four alternativesFirebase, Knock, Novu, Tencent RTC Chat
no first choice
Ten alternativesAppcues, Braze, CleverTap, CometChat, OneSignal, Pendo, Product Fruits, Stream, UserGuiding, Userpilot
against: Telegram, WhatsAppagainst: Airship, Braze, Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) / Google, JPush, Kumulos, Leanplum, Mobpush, OneSignal, Pushbot, Umeng
GLM 4.7 FlashXUserpilot
Four alternativesAppcues, Intercom, Product Fruits, UserGuiding
LaunchNotesChanged
Five alternativesAppcues, Beamer, Courier, Customer.io, Intercom
Intercom
Seven alternativesAppcues, Braze, CometChat, Customer.io, OneSignal, Pendo, Userpilot
OneSignal
Seven alternativesAppcues, Firebase, LiveChat, Pushwoosh, Tidio, UserGuiding, tawk.to
no first choiceagainst: Facebook Messenger, Keybase, Kik, Regular SMS Text Messages, Snapchat, TeleMessage, Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp, Whisper
MiniMax M2.5Product Fruits, Userpilot
Four alternativesAppcues, Customer.io, Intercom, Pendo
no first choiceChanged
Three alternativesIntercom, Pendo, WalkMe
no first choice
Eight alternativesAppcues, Braze, CleverTap, CometChat, Intercom, OneSignal, Pendo, Userpilot
Pushwoosh
Two alternativesTencent RTC, UserGuiding
against: OneSignalno first choiceagainst: Braze, Chameleon, Facebook Messenger, Pendo, QuickBlox, Snapchat, Userpilot
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:37yes88 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:05yes55 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:36yes2025 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:27yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:34yes09 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 05:07yes07 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:11yes016 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:22yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:53yes039 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:50yes029 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:25yes026 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:13yes018 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:14yes810 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:27yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:51yes1023 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:33yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:28yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:14yes06 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:37yes033 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:40yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:15yes059 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:59yes025 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:38yes034 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:54yes036 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:19yes137 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:24yes810 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:25yes1721 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:02yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:47yes09 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:17yes07 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:34yes017 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:20yes01 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:57yes038 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:03yes036 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:26yes031 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:08yes016 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:46yes96 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:48no02 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:34yes1526 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:42yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:47yes010 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:08yes05 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:04yes027 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:14yes01 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:47yes035 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:54yes020 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:53yes031 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:15yes015 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:38no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:36no012 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:28yes1025 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:12yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:18yes07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:53no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:10yes033 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:31yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:17yes041 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:44yes045 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:21yes039 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:55yes014 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:13yes159 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:53yes26 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:44yes1923 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:36yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:58yes06 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:31yes06 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:08yes040 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:47yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:34no044 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:34yes043 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:03yes0123 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:11yes016 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Twilio read as Twilio Conversations
Unresolved, counted raw
Agora Chat
Amazon Pinpoint / AWS End User Messaging
Chat & Ask AI
Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) / Google
Freshworks (Freshdesk/Freshsales)
GB WhatsApp
GetStream.io
Heyy.io
Keybase
LaunchNotes
Mesibo
Mobpush
Novu
Pushbot
QuickBlox
Regular SMS Text Messages
Self-hosted Matrix/Element
Signal Protocol-based solutions
TikTok/Instagram Native Integration Tools
Umeng (Alibaba)
Viber
Whisper
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in customer

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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