Backreply mirrors your HubSpot conversations into Slack. A customer writes to your HubSpot inbox, the conversation appears as a thread in a Slack channel you choose, and when a teammate replies in that thread the customer receives it — as a chat message or an email, in the same HubSpot conversation. Nobody needs to open HubSpot to help.
Common uses:
Let engineers, sales, or anyone else answer customers from Slack without a HubSpot seat.
Route a specific inbox, channel, or team's conversations into the Slack channel where that team already works.
Keep the whole conversation — customer messages, your replies, internal comments — in HubSpot, where it belongs.
Setup takes about 10 minutes and has four parts: install the app, connect Slack, create one routing rule, check your teammate list.
Before you start
You will need:
HubSpot — a user who is allowed to connect apps to your HubSpot account (usually a Super Admin), and a conversations inbox that is already receiving customer messages.
Slack — permission to install apps in your Slack workspace. If your workspace requires admin approval for new apps, arrange that first.
A Slack channel for conversations to land in.
#supportis a fine place to start.
One Backreply workspace connects one HubSpot account to one Slack workspace. You can add more workspaces later from the same account.
New Backreply accounts get full access during a free trial. Plans are listed on the Pricing page inside the app.
Install the app
Installation starts in Backreply, not in HubSpot. If you clicked Install app on the HubSpot App Marketplace listing, you arrive at Backreply first and continue from step 2 below.
Go to app.backreply.com and sign up with an email address and password. Confirm your email if you are asked to.
On the Workspaces page, click New Workspace, then Connect HubSpot. If this is your first workspace, the page asks "Which support tool do you use?" — choose HubSpot there.
HubSpot asks which account to connect. Pick the account whose inbox you want mirrored, and click Choose Account.
Review the permissions Backreply requests, then click Connect app.
What Backreply requests, and why
Scope | Why it is needed |
| Required by HubSpot to issue and refresh the connection |
| Read threads and messages, and receive the notifications that tell Backreply a customer has written |
| Post your Slack reply back to the customer, and post internal comments |
| Show who the customer is on the Slack card |
| Show the customer's company on the Slack card |
| List your HubSpot users so replies can be attributed and conversations routed by assignee |
| Read the ticket linked to a conversation. HubSpot offers no read-only ticket scope, so the broader one is requested |
| Upload files attached to a Slack reply so the customer receives them |
Backreply requests no CRM write access. It never creates or edits contacts, companies, deals, or timeline entries. The only things it writes are the reply and the internal comment inside the conversation, and the attachment files those carry.
You are returned to Backreply and sent straight on to Slack. Choose the Slack workspace, review the permissions, and click Allow.
What Backreply requests from Slack, and why
Access | Why it is needed |
Post messages and reply in threads | To create the conversation thread and post updates |
Read messages in channels it has been added to | To pick up your replies |
Add and read emoji reactions | To confirm notes and delivery on your own message |
Upload and download files | To move attachments in both directions |
See channels and join public ones | To post into the channel your rule names |
Read member profiles and email addresses | To match Slack members to HubSpot users |
When both connections finish you land back on Workspaces, and your new workspace card shows HubSpot and Slack connected.
Configure the app
1. Create a notification rule (required)
A notification rule tells Backreply which conversations go to which Slack channel. Until you create one, nothing appears in Slack.
Open your workspace, then click Configure next to Notification Rules.
Click Add Notification Rule.
Give the rule a name — for example All support.
Choose the Slack channel.
Optionally add a condition. HubSpot conversations can be filtered by:
Condition | Routes on |
Assigned Teammate | The HubSpot user the conversation is assigned to |
Assigned Team | The team it is assigned to |
Inbox | The inbox it arrived in |
Channel | How it arrived — live chat, Messenger, email |
Conversation Status | Open or closed |
Handled By | A human agent or an AI agent |
A rule with no condition is a catch-all: every conversation goes to that channel. That is the right first rule for most teams.
Choose how follow-ups behave in that channel:
Quiet — post only when a conversation is new.
Responsive (recommended) — also nudge the channel when a customer is waiting on you.
Attentive — nudge on every customer message.
Click Create.
How rules are evaluated: top to bottom, and the first matching rule wins. Put narrow rules (a specific inbox or team) above broad ones. If no rule matches a conversation, it does not appear in Slack at all. You can drag rules to reorder them.
Private channels: Backreply joins public channels on its own. For a private channel, invite it first with /invite @BackReply.
2. Check teammate mapping
Teammate mapping is what makes a Slack reply appear in HubSpot under the right person's name.
In your workspace, open Teammate Mapping.
Anyone whose Slack email matches their HubSpot email is mapped automatically and marked Email matched.
For anyone else, click Add Mapping and pair the HubSpot teammate with the Slack member by hand.
HubSpot users and Slack members sync every hour after you connect, so a brand-new connection can take up to an hour to fill in.
If someone is not mapped: their reply still reaches the customer. It is sent under a fallback agent — by default the person who installed the app — with the Slack author's real name included in the message, so the customer and your team can still tell who wrote it. Unmapped users cannot assign a conversation or open and close it from Slack.
3. Try it end to end
Send yourself a message through one of your HubSpot channels — a live chat on your site, or an email to the connected address.
Within a few seconds a thread appears in the Slack channel your rule names.
Reply in that thread. A ✅ reaction appears on your message once HubSpot confirms the reply went out.
Check the customer's side, then open the conversation in HubSpot — your reply is there, in the same thread, attributed to you.
If nothing arrives, see Troubleshooting below.
Use the app
Once configured, Backreply runs on its own. Everything below happens in the Slack thread — no HubSpot seat required.
Automatic, with nothing to run:
New customer messages appear in Slack seconds after HubSpot receives them, in the channel your rules choose.
Cards carry the customer's name, the message, how it arrived, and a View in HubSpot link.
Status and assignment changes made in HubSpot are reflected on the Slack thread.
HubSpot users and Slack members re-sync every hour.
The connection to HubSpot renews itself. HubSpot access expires roughly every 30 minutes, and Backreply refreshes it silently — you never have to reconnect for that reason.
Manual, done by your team:
Reply to the customer. Type in the thread and send. Bold, italics, lists, quotes, links, code blocks, and emoji carry over, and so do attachments. On an email conversation the reply lands in the customer's existing email thread rather than starting a new one, and anyone already CC'd on a thread you have replied to before stays CC'd. A ✅ reaction on your Slack message means HubSpot confirmed delivery; if a delivery fails after that, the reaction changes and Backreply posts the reason in the thread.
Leave an internal comment instead. Start your message with an @mention — @sarah can you check the billing here? — and it is posted as a comment on the HubSpot conversation rather than sent to the customer. Backreply reacts with 📝 and ✅ so you can tell at a glance. An @mention in the middle of a sentence is not a comment; that message goes to the customer.
Use the buttons on the thread.
Button | What it does |
Assign to Me / Reassign | Assigns the HubSpot conversation to you, or to another teammate or team |
View in HubSpot | Opens the conversation in HubSpot |
Add Note | Opens a note box — safer than the @mention shortcut, and can close or reopen at the same time |
View Details | Shows the customer details in a modal |
Close / Open | Changes the conversation status in HubSpot |
Disconnect the app
You can pause the connection from Backreply, or cut it from HubSpot.
Pause from Backreply (keeps your settings).
Open the workspace in Backreply.
Expand Danger Zone and click Deactivate.
Confirm.
Syncing stops immediately. Your rules and teammate mappings are preserved, so you can reconnect later without rebuilding them.
Disconnect from Slack. In Slack, go to Settings & administration → Manage apps, open BackReply, and remove it. Backreply can no longer post to or read from your Slack workspace.
What disconnecting does to your data. Nothing in HubSpot changes. Every conversation, reply, internal comment, assignment, and attachment that Backreply delivered stays in HubSpot exactly as it is, and no CRM record is touched — Backreply has no write access to your CRM. Slack threads that already exist stay in Slack as a record, but they stop syncing: a reply typed in an old thread after disconnecting will not reach the customer. Backreply keeps your rules, your teammate mappings, and the identifiers that link a HubSpot conversation to its Slack thread, so reconnecting resumes where you left off.
Uninstall the app
To remove Backreply from your HubSpot account entirely, follow HubSpot's own instructions: Uninstall an app. In short — in HubSpot go to Settings → Integrations → Connected Apps, find BackReply, and uninstall it.
What uninstalling does to your data. HubSpot revokes Backreply's access immediately. New customer messages stop appearing in Slack, and replies typed in Slack can no longer be delivered — Backreply marks the workspace as disconnected and emails you. Your HubSpot data is unaffected: conversations, comments, assignments, contacts, companies, tickets, and files all remain, and nothing is deleted or rewritten. Backreply retains the configuration described above (rules, mappings, thread identifiers) so a reinstall is quick.
To have your Backreply account and its stored data deleted, email team@backreply.com and we will remove it.
Data and privacy
What Backreply stores: your connection details and encrypted access tokens, the identifiers that pair a HubSpot conversation with its Slack thread, your routing rules and teammate mappings, and the customer details shown on the Slack card (such as name and email).
What it does not store: an archive of your message bodies. Message text passes through to Slack and HubSpot and is not kept as a separate copy.
Where it goes: only to Slack and HubSpot. Traffic between Slack, Backreply, and HubSpot is encrypted in transit.
Deletion requests, data processing agreements, and GDPR questions: email team@backreply.com.
Troubleshooting
Symptom | Most likely cause |
No conversations appear in Slack | No notification rule exists, or none of your rules match. Add a catch-all rule with no conditions. |
Conversations appear in the wrong channel | Another rule higher in the list matched first. Reorder the rules. |
Nothing appears in a private channel | The bot is not in it. Run |
Teammate Mapping is empty | The hourly sync has not run yet. Give it up to an hour after connecting. |
Replies are attributed to the wrong person | That Slack user is not mapped to a HubSpot user, so the fallback agent was used. Map them. |
"You must be mapped…" when assigning | Assigning and opening/closing require a mapping. |
Replies stopped entirely | Check the workspace card. If it shows HubSpot disconnected, the app was uninstalled or access was revoked — click Reconnect. Also check that your trial or subscription is still active. |
A ✅ turned into a failure message | HubSpot accepted the reply and then could not deliver it — usually a bad recipient address on an email conversation. The thread message says why. |
An attachment did not arrive | The file was too large or there were too many on one message. The text still goes through, and skipped files are listed by name. |
Get help
Email team@backreply.com. It helps to include your Slack workspace name, the channel, roughly when it happened, and the HubSpot conversation — the View in HubSpot link from the Slack card is ideal.