Connect Instagram

Instagram DMs arrive in your Inbox alongside WhatsApp, and your flows can answer them. There are two ways to connect, and Instagram behaves differently from Messenger in ways worth knowing before you set your bot up.

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Read this first

Two Bot setup features that do reach Instagram, sent at send time rather than pushed to Meta:

• Default reply: the Reply automatically when no keyword or flow matches section fires on Instagram and Facebook. When a contact’s DM matches no flow and no keyword, DMLY sends the reply you configured, honouring Once per 24 hours per contact or Every time. (On a contact’s very first DM the welcome message goes out instead, if you’ve set one.) Any DM counts (text, or a photo, video, story reply or shared post), but it never fires for a contact who has opted out or paused the bot.
• Buttons under the welcome message: the welcome editor lets you add up to three buttons, and they are delivered with the welcome message as tappable buttons. The buttons on the default reply work the same way.

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Choose how to connect

Both give you the same Instagram channel: DMs in the Inbox, flows, and comment automation including comment-to-DM. Pick Instagram Login unless your account is already linked to a Facebook Page you manage. You can only have one messaging channel per Instagram account. If you connect an account the other way later, its existing channel is switched over: your automations and conversation history stay with it.

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Connect with Instagram Login

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Connect through a Facebook Page

Your plan controls how many Instagram accounts you can connect, whichever way you connect them. If you are over the limit you never reach the sign-in screen.

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The 24-hour window

Meta only lets you message someone who messaged you first, and only for a limited time. The rules are the same as Messenger:

• Automated messages: flows, sequences and broadcasts can only reach a contact within 24 hours of that contact’s last message to you. Outside it, the send is blocked and recorded as failed, not silently dropped. The one exception is the Marketing Opt-in node: ask while the contact is still in the window, and if they accept you get exactly one more message after it closes.
• Manual replies from the Inbox: a teammate can reply for 7 days after the contact’s last message. DMLY sends these under Meta’s human-agent allowance automatically.
• No templates. Instagram has nothing like WhatsApp’s approved message templates. There is no way to open a new conversation with someone who has not written to you first. If you need to reach people cold, use WhatsApp.

Broadcasts work on Instagram, but they are plain text sent inside that same window. Anyone outside it is marked failed with a window-closed reason on the broadcast report, unless they accepted a Marketing Opt-in request. See WhatsApp rules and limits for the contrast. Paid Marketing Messages, which reach subscribers outside the window, are Facebook only. An Instagram broadcast has no Reach choice, and on Instagram the Marketing Opt-in node only ever asks for one follow-up message, never a standing subscription.

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What Bot setup gives Instagram

Open Bot setup and pick the Instagram channel from the channel selector. Two of the four sections are pushed to Instagram: Save the page and DMLY pushes both to Instagram. Turn the menu off and save to remove it again. If the push to Meta fails you get a warning on save: Saved, but syncing to Meta failed: … Check Salesbot → Logs. That Logs page is under Configurations → Reports, then the Logs tab. See Logs. The other two sections (Welcome and Default reply) also work on Instagram, but DMLY sends them at send time rather than pushing them to Meta: the welcome goes out on a contact’s first-ever DM, and the default reply when a message matches no flow or keyword. That’s why they never appear in Instagram’s own settings. For a persistent menu item, use Start flow or Open URL. A Postback item’s payload is never acted on, so the tap does nothing useful.

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What starts a flow on Instagram

Beyond a plain DM, these trigger your automations:

• A story reply or a story mention
• A comment on a post, including Instagram Live comments
• A tapped ice breaker or persistent-menu item bound to a flow

In a comment-triggered flow, the first message the flow sends opens a DM with the commenter as a private reply, bypassing the 24-hour window, the standard way to turn a comment into a conversation. Meta allows one private reply per comment, so a later message in the same flow only reaches someone who never DMed you once they reply. Reply to Comment only posts a public reply under the comment; pair the two if you want both. Every comment lands in the Inbox under Comments. The commenter becomes a contact when a comment automation runs on it, when they DM you, or if DMLY already knows them on this Instagram account (someone who DMed you before, say). Anyone else is kept comment-only: their comment is in the Inbox, but they aren’t listed in Contacts or counted toward your limit. A comment automation can cover All posts or Specific posts; see Comment automation. Comments on Instagram ads are not confirmed to work. The post picker lists your posts and Reels, not your ads, and nothing in the trigger mentions ads. Facebook ad comments do work, but that result doesn’t carry over to Instagram. Instagram flows can also check whether the contact follows your account, which Facebook has no equivalent for. DMLY reads this the first time it needs it and remembers it on the Contact.

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Instagram quirks in the Inbox

• Quick replies are text-only on Instagram. Buttons, carousels and media all work.
• No delivery receipt. Instagram never reports delivery, so a sent message stays at sent until the contact reads it. Messenger reports both. Nothing is wrong.
• Names fill in late. A new contact is created as Instagram user <last 4 digits> and upgraded to the real name and username once Meta returns the profile. People who only ever commented may keep the username, because Meta does not return a profile for someone who has never DMed you.
• Opt-out keywords work here too. A contact who sends stop or unsubscribe is opted out, tagged Unsubscribe, and removed from running flows and sequences. Automated messages stop; manual replies still go through.

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Troubleshooting

Nothing arrives in the Inbox

Start with Fix a silent Facebook Page or Instagram account. It sets out the four causes, which look identical from the outside, and three of them you can fix yourself.For an account connected through a Facebook Page, the one to suspect when nothing has ever arrived is the Page link: those messages are delivered through the Page your account is linked to, so check the Page behind the account is still one you administer. Then connect the account again.For an account connected with Instagram Login, check it doesn’t show Reconnect to enable Inbox, then connect it again and approve every permission.

The account connected but sends fail

Usually the access has lapsed. For an account connected through a Facebook Page, DMs are sent with the linked Page’s token, not the Instagram account’s, so expiry or losing your Page admin access breaks sending. For Instagram Login, they’re sent with the Instagram account’s own access. Either way DMLY marks the channel unauthorized, shows a red dot on it and emails the workspace admins. Reconnect the account from Integrations → Channels.

The Instagram account isn't in the picker

This applies to Instagram (via Facebook Page): the account is not a Business account, it is not linked to a Facebook Page, or you are not an admin of that Page. Fix the link in Meta Business Suite and start again, or connect with Instagram (Instagram Login) instead, which needs no Page.