> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.watx.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Instagram

> Instagram DMs, story replies and comments on your posts, in the same inbox as WhatsApp — and the platform rules that make the channel behave differently.

Connect an Instagram professional account and its direct messages, story replies and post
comments arrive in Watx. DMs land in the shared [Inbox](/inbox/overview) against the same
contacts as WhatsApp; comments get their own queue, because a comment is public, attached
to a post, and has no thread.

The channel is built for people who work a backlog after a post lands: a comment triage
desk with keyboard shortcuts, comment-to-DM automations you can put on one post or on all
of them, and the same [automations](/automations/overview) and [AI agents](/ai-agents/overview)
you already use elsewhere.

## What arrives

|                                         | Where it goes                                             |
| --------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| Direct messages                         | The Inbox, as a conversation on the **Instagram** channel |
| Story replies                           | The same conversation, with the story kept as context     |
| Reactions                               | On the message they were applied to                       |
| Button and ice-breaker taps             | Treated as a reply, so an automation can act on them      |
| Comments on your posts                  | **Comments**, the moderation queue — not the Inbox        |
| Live comments                           | The same queue                                            |
| Replies you send from the Instagram app | The Inbox, marked as yours                                |

A reply you type in the Instagram app appears in the thread so the history is complete,
but it deliberately does **not** start automations or an AI agent — otherwise the
workspace would answer its own messages.

## How Instagram differs from WhatsApp

These are Meta's rules, not settings, and most of the channel's behaviour follows from
them.

|                            | WhatsApp                | Instagram                                         |
| -------------------------- | ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| Reply window               | 24 hours                | 24 hours                                          |
| Re-opening a closed thread | An approved template    | **Not possible** — wait for the customer to write |
| Message templates          | Yes                     | **None at all**                                   |
| Broadcasts                 | Yes                     | **Not available**                                 |
| Delivery receipts          | Sent → delivered → read | Sent → read. There is no delivered tick           |
| List messages              | Yes                     | No. Use buttons instead (up to 13 quick replies)  |
| Product catalogue          | Yes                     | No                                                |
| Identity                   | Phone number            | Instagram handle. No phone number                 |

<Warning>
  There is no compliant way to send bulk Instagram DMs, because there is no template
  mechanism to pre-approve them. Contacts who exist only on Instagram carry no phone
  number, so they are left out of broadcast audiences automatically.
</Warning>

## The two windows

**The 24-hour reply window** applies to DMs. You can reply freely for 24 hours after each
message the customer sends. After that the thread closes until they write again. Watx
refuses an out-of-window send before it reaches Meta and tells you why, rather than letting
it fail silently. Some workspaces are on a deployment that holds Meta's Human Agent
permission, which extends this to 7 days; **Channel Settings** states which applies to
yours.

**The 7-day private-reply window** applies to comments. Meta allows exactly **one** private
reply per comment, within **7 days** of it being posted. That private reply is the only way
to open a DM thread with somebody who has never messaged you — which is what comment
funnels are built on. Both limits are permanent for a given comment, so Watx disables the
DM button and names the reason instead of letting you write a message that will be refused.

## Contacts are not merged across channels

An Instagram identity carries no phone number, so there is no reliable way to tell that
`@someone` is the same person as a number in your contact list. The same human on both
channels is two contacts. Watx resolves the handle and display name so the Inbox shows a
person rather than a numeric id.

## Where things live

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Connect Instagram" icon="plug" href="/instagram/connect">
    What the account needs, the Business Login flow, and keeping access alive.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Posts and automation" icon="table-cells" href="/instagram/posts">
    Coverage across your posts, automating one or many, and moderating from a post.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Comments" icon="comments" href="/instagram/comments">
    The triage desk: filters, keyboard shortcuts, public replies and DMs.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Comment funnels" icon="gift" href="/instagram/comment-funnels">
    Comment a word, get the link in the DMs — the editor and its results.
  </Card>

  <Card title="DM agents" icon="robot" href="/instagram/dm-agents">
    What answers an Instagram DM when nobody on your team has yet.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Intents" icon="heart" href="/instagram/intents">
    Keyword rules that reach both DMs and comments.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Settings and analytics" icon="chart-line" href="/instagram/settings-and-analytics">
    Subscribed events, messaging rules, the master switch and the overview report.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>