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Channels → Instagram → DM agents reports what would answer an incoming Instagram DM right now, and what is different about Instagram when it does. It is not a second AI setup screen. Agents, automations and knowledge are shared with WhatsApp and the website — one agent can cover all three — and this page links to the same editors rather than duplicating them.

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Who replies first

Every inbound Instagram DM is offered to the engines in order, and the first one that handles it stops the rest, so a customer gets one reply rather than three.
1

Comment funnels

If the DM is a tap on a button a comment funnel sent, the funnel owns it and carries the person to the next step.
2

Automations

Active rules with a message trigger — a new message, a first message, a keyword match, a story reply. Set them up under Automations, or through Intents for keyword rules.
3

An AI agent

Answers anything the rules above did not. Its name, model and per-conversation reply limit are shown on this page when one covers Instagram.
Flows are WhatsApp-only. A flow can send lists, templates and catalogue products, none of which exist on Instagram, so the flow engine is not offered on this channel. Automations are the channel-agnostic engine and do run here.

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Which agent answers

A workspace can run several agents. An Instagram DM reaches the first active agent whose channels include Instagram — or whose channel list is empty, which means every channel. Agents are consulted in their priority order, and there is no fallback beyond that: an agent scoped only to WhatsApp will not answer an Instagram thread just because it is the only agent you have. Once an agent has replied in a conversation it stays with that thread, so reordering your agents does not change who the customer is talking to mid-sentence. Full detail on Routing. This page names the agent that would answer, its model, and how many times it will reply in one conversation. If that agent covers Instagram but auto-reply is off, it says so — the agent then drafts replies for a human to send rather than answering by itself. See Test mode and playground.

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How agents behave differently on Instagram

Each of these produces a “why didn’t the bot reply?” question if you do not know it up front, so the page states them plainly. Nothing replies outside the 24-hour window. An agent can only answer within 24 hours of the customer’s last message. Unlike WhatsApp there is no template to re-open a closed thread, so a rule that fires late simply cannot send. Replies you send from the Instagram app do not trigger agents. They appear in the Inbox so the history is complete, but the engines ignore them deliberately — otherwise the assistant would answer your own messages. Template and catalogue steps are skipped. Instagram supports neither. A shared automation containing one still runs; that step is refused with a logged reason rather than sending something unintended. See Channels and the 24-hour window. List messages are not supported. Use a buttons step instead — Instagram allows up to 13 quick replies.

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Turning it off

Auto-reply, test mode and the per-conversation reply cap are all agent settings, under AI agents. If a bot is silent and you cannot see why, the readiness checklist on the agent is the place to look — it mirrors the same gates in the same order. See Why is my agent silent?.