Contacts can message your business on Instagram from its profile, posts and stories, and reply with photos, videos and by tapping buttons. Automated replies can be sent within 24 hours of a contact's last message, and replies from your team for up to 7 days.

Before you start

You'll need an Instagram account for your business that's set up for messaging by other tools. Instagram and Facebook's help centers explain each step:

1. Make it a professional account, if it isn't one already.
2. Connect it to a Facebook Page you manage.
3. Allow access to its messages from connected tools, in its message settings.

Adding the channel

Go to Settings > Channels and click New Channel. Instagram is under Social & Chat, or you can type its name in the search box.

Click Add Instagram Business Account, and Facebook will ask you to log in and choose what to share. Make sure you include the Facebook Page your Instagram account is connected to, and approve the permissions, as they're needed to send and receive messages for you.

You'll then see the pages you shared. Click the one that's connected to your Instagram account, and the channel is added.

Considerations

Meta only allows businesses to message contacts who have messaged them first. Automated messages, e.g. from flows, can be sent within 24 hours of a contact's last message. Replies from your team on tickets can be sent for up to 7 days.

If the channel stops working, e.g. because you changed your Facebook password or removed its permissions, open the channel and choose Reconnect Business Account from its menu.

To learn more about channels in general, see Introduction to Channels.