Appearance
Connecting Your Instagram Account
Connect an Instagram business account to your AI sales assistant so it can handle direct messages, comments, story reactions, and other interactions — a seamless customer-service experience on one of the most popular social platforms.
At a glance
| You need | Where | Result |
|---|---|---|
| An assistant to connect | Channels tab → your assistant → Instagram | Instagram channel scoped to that assistant |
| A Meta business, Facebook page, and linked Instagram account | Connect Instagram → Meta authorization page | Assistant authorized to act on the account |
| Behavior settings (reactions, comments, follower check, etc.) | Channel settings after connecting | Assistant responds the way you want |
Connect in 4 steps:
- Open the Channels tab in your MyChatBot dashboard.
- Select the assistant you want to connect, then open its Instagram channel.
- Click Connect Instagram.
- Complete the Meta authorization, then return to the dashboard to configure behavior. A newly connected account switches itself on.
Before you connect
The Instagram tab says what you need: "You need an Instagram business or creator account that is linked to a Facebook Page you manage. Facebook will ask you to choose that Page." It links to How to switch to a business account and How to link Instagram to a Facebook Page.
In the app
Channels live at app.mychatbot.app/channels → pick your assistant → Instagram. Connect from the assistant you want answering Instagram. If the page is already connected to another assistant, MyChatBot asks what to do: Move to the new assistant (the old one loses the channel and the existing chats move with it), or Share by schedule (both assistants keep the page and take turns by working hours — this needs working hours on both). Cancel leaves everything as it was.
Authentication
Clicking Connect Instagram redirects you to the Meta (Facebook) authorization page. There you:
- Select your business.
- Select your Instagram/Facebook page.
- Select your Instagram account.
- Authorize the necessary permissions.
After completing these steps you're redirected back to the MyChatBot dashboard, where your connected Instagram account is displayed.
If Facebook returns no Page, or no Page with an Instagram account linked, MyChatBot shows Your Instagram isn't linked to a Facebook Page yet with the two fixes: make the Instagram a business or creator account (in the Instagram app: Settings and activity → Account type and tools), and link it to a Facebook Page you manage (Edit profile → Page). Then press Connect again and choose that Page in the Facebook window.
A new account switches itself on when the connection finishes: "Instagram is connected. Your assistant now answers your Instagram messages." If that step fails, turn Connect agent to this channel on yourself. While a connected account is switched off, the tab shows "Your assistant isn't answering on Instagram yet." with a Switch it on button. Finish the connection in the same browser where you pressed Connect Instagram.
Connecting from a phone
On some phones Facebook's app takes over this step and doesn't bring you back. MyChatBot then shows a note above Connect Instagram with a Try again button. It's usually quickest to open app.mychatbot.app on a computer and connect from there.
Access can expire
Instagram/Meta may require periodic re-authentication when access expires. If the assistant stops responding, reconnect the account from the Instagram channel (use Connect Instagram again, or Revoke token and reconnect).
Behavior settings
Once connected, tune how the assistant reacts to different Instagram events. All of these are toggles and fields in the channel settings.
| Setting | What it does | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Ignore Message Reactions | Skips reactions customers add to direct messages (e.g. an emoji on your reply). | You don't want the assistant to treat a thumbs-up on a DM as a new message. |
| Ignore Story Reactions | Skips emoji-only replies customers send in reaction to your stories. | High story volume — avoid flooding the assistant with quick emoji reactions. |
| Ignore Story Mentions | Skips mentions of your page that customers add to their own stories. | You don't want the assistant to respond every time you're tagged in a story. |
| Ignore Comments | Switches off the channel's own comment replies on posts and reels — no public reply, no DM outreach from Reply mode. Also hides all comment-reply settings below. Comments on posts monitored by the Keyword Responder automation are still handled by that automation. | You want DMs handled but the channel's comment replies switched off. |
| Enable Follower Check | Lets the assistant verify whether the person it's talking to follows your page, so it can respond differently to followers and non-followers. | Follower-gated offers, or a warmer greeting for people who already follow you. |
| Instagram Products | Exposes your Instagram posts as products, so the assistant can search your feed and recommend posts as products in chat. | You sell through Instagram posts and want the assistant to find them (see About Instagram Products). |
| Reply mode (Custom message / AI-generated) | Controls how the assistant replies to comments — a fixed line or an AI-written reply per comment. | See Comment replies below. |
| Quick comment reply | The public one-liner posted under a comment (shown in Custom message mode). When someone comments on a post, the assistant can also reach out to them privately via DM. | Move public comments into a private conversation. |
| Disable batch image sending | Messages with multiple images are sent separately instead of as a single album/batch. | Audiences or clients that render albums poorly. |
| Send links as a file | Works around Instagram's link restriction: plain web links in AI replies are sent as a PDF attachment instead of inline text. | Links in replies are being blocked or not delivered. |
| Blocked usernames | One Instagram username per line (@name or a profile link). The AI never replies to or messages these people, and their existing chats move to Spam. Click Save blocked usernames to apply. | Loyal customers, partners, or staff you always handle yourself. |
| Voice reply | Choose whether the assistant replies with voice, and which voice it uses, when customers send voice messages. | You want spoken replies to match your brand. |
| Reply Delay (s) | Adds a delay, in seconds, between receiving a message and responding. A new account starts at 2 seconds. | Make replies feel less instant/robotic, or batch rapid-fire messages. |
About Follower Check
When Enable Follower Check is on, the assistant gains the ability to look up whether the current customer follows your Instagram page and use that in the conversation. Tell it how and when to use this in your main assistant instructions — for example, "Only share the discount code with followers." This is what powers personalized, follower-aware responses.
About Instagram Products
Turning on Instagram Products indexes your Instagram posts as searchable products, so the assistant can look them up and recommend them during a chat — turning your feed into a browsable catalog.
- Requires the Instagram account to be connected first ("Connect Instagram before enabling products"), and the assistant must have a knowledge base.
- While indexing runs, the toggle shows Indexing started...; when finished you'll see Indexing completed with progress, plus a Download feed link to inspect what was indexed. If it shows Indexing failed. Try again., re-toggle to retry.
- Once products are enabled, an extra Agentic Search option appears: "Enable AI-powered multi-step product search agent instead of direct search." Turn it on when simple one-shot search isn't finding the right posts and you want the assistant to search iteratively.
Comment replies
When Ignore Comments is off, a Reply mode selector controls how the assistant handles comments under your posts and reels. Posts monitored by the Keyword Responder automation are not covered: their comments go to the automation instead.
- Custom message — the assistant posts the fixed text you type in Quick comment reply, then follows up with a private reply in Direct Messages. Leave the field empty to skip the public comment reply — the assistant will still send the private DM.
- AI-generated — the assistant writes a contextual reply to each comment. Add an AI instruction (optional) to steer tone and content (for example, "always invite them to DM us for pricing").
Two extra options appear in AI-generated mode:
- Reply in Direct Messages — when a comment is a targeted request (price, location, availability), the assistant also sends a private message; simple reactions get a comment reply only.
- Detect the comment's language — the assistant detects the language of each comment and replies in that language; when off, it replies in the assistant's primary language.
Notes on the private-reply flow:
- The assistant keeps context about which post the comment was on.
- The person receives a message request they can accept to start a conversation.
Stories and edited messages
- When a customer forwards a story into Direct, the chat records that they shared a story, with the story's media when Instagram still serves it.
- When a customer replies to your story, the message is saved with a line that starts with their username and reads "… replied to your Instagram story" ("User replied to your Instagram story" when the username is unknown), so your team and the assistant know what the text answers. The story's media is attached when Instagram serves it. When the story can only be loaded from its link, a video story is kept as a video (re-hosted to our storage when possible, otherwise as Instagram's original link, which expires), and one still frame of it is attached as an image the assistant can see. When the content can't be shown, the message carries the note "[You cannot see what this story shows: its content could not be loaded. Ask the client which item they mean, or hand the chat to a manager. Do not assume it is a product from earlier messages.]", and the assistant asks the customer which item they mean or hands the chat over instead of guessing a product from earlier messages.
- When a customer edits a message they already sent, the stored text is replaced with the corrected one. An edit doesn't start a new assistant reply — the assistant reads the corrected text on its next turn.
Audit what the assistant replied
The channel shows an Agent replied to N comments counter that opens the Agent comment reply log — each entry lists the date/time, the comment, and the assistant's reply. An Instagram status column shows whether each reply is still there: Published, Hidden, or Removed on Instagram (deleted after it was posted). It stays empty for older entries and when Instagram can't be checked. Use Clear log to reset it.
Limitations
- Video file size: Videos larger than 25 MB can't be uploaded directly — they're shared as a link to the video file instead.
- File uploads: Subject to Instagram's own file size and format limits.
- Rate limiting: Instagram may throttle automated responses.
- Re-authentication: Access may need periodic renewal when it expires (see the warning above).
- Content compliance: All automated responses must comply with Instagram's terms of service and community guidelines.