Test Intercom and other cookie-based features without clearing cookies

When we set up Intercom for our own customer support, we ran into a testing problem. Intercom gives you fine control over where, when and to whom a message appears. One of our rules was “only show this to a visitor once per day”. But once you’ve seen a message, cookies stop you seeing it again as a new visitor, so every test needed a fresh start.

The same goes for anything that remembers you with cookies: timed or once-per-session pop-ups, onboarding tours, chat widgets and split tests.

The usual workarounds

• Clear your cookies, which also signs you out of email and everything else.
• Open a different browser for each test.
• Create and open a new browser profile for each test.

All of them are slow and messy.

The quick way

Right-click the tab and choose Duplicate into new Temporary Identity. You get the same page with its own empty set of cookies, as a first-time visitor. Do it again for the next test, as many times as you like. Your other tabs, and everything you’re signed in to, stay as they were.

If you also need to test from a different IP address or country, give the identity a proxy with Proxy Manager.

Any time you need to be signed in to the same app or site as more than one person, or as nobody at all, this is the answer.

Adapted from a post by Larry Kokoszka. See how developers and QA teams use Ghost Browser.