Instagram automation
Answer messages and comments automatically, publish and schedule posts, and let your team take over at any moment. Link with Instagram Login, or through the Facebook page the account belongs to.
Quick start
Most accounts are answering within ten minutes.
- 1In Linked accounts, choose “Continue with Instagram” and sign in to the professional account.
- 2Open Instagram → Automatic replies and check the account shows “Receiving messages”.
- 3Choose how messages are answered: keyword replies, an AI reply or Octo, and save.
- 4In Instagram → Comments, set up the comment automation for all posts with a public and a private reply.
- 5From another Instagram account, send a message and leave a comment; the replies arrive within seconds.
Before you start
Four things make everything else work.
A professional account
Instagram allows automation only on Business and Creator accounts. You can switch for free in the Instagram app’s settings.
Two ways to link
Sign in with Instagram (no Facebook page needed), or add the Facebook page the account is linked to.
A public account for comments
Instagram sends comments and mentions only for public accounts.
One set of settings
Every workspace that holds the account shares its settings, so a customer never gets two replies.
Link an account
Linking takes one sign-in.
- 1Open Linked accounts in the dashboard.
- 2Choose “Continue with Instagram” and sign in to the account.
- 3Allow messages, comments, publishing and insights; each one powers a part of Autoobot.
- 4Back in Autoobot, Instagram → Automatic replies shows the account as “Receiving messages”.
Or through your Facebook page
Replies to messages
Direct messages are answered with the same settings as WhatsApp.
Nobody (you and your team)
Messages reach the inbox and people answer.
Keyword replies
A fixed reply when the message contains your keywords, and an optional reply when none match.
AI reply
AI writes a reply from your instructions and the conversation.
Octo
Your assistant answers from your business knowledge and hands over to a person when it should.
Ice breakers
Up to four questions shown when someone opens a chat; each gets its reply at once.
Story mentions
A thank-you sent automatically when someone mentions the account in their story.
Working hours and audience
Answer always, only within your hours or only outside them; answer everyone or only new conversations.
One reply to a burst
Autoobot waits a few seconds so several messages in a row get one reply.
Publishing
Publish now or later, to one account or several.
Photos, reels, carousels, stories
JPEG photos up to 8 MB; MP4 or MOV videos up to 100 MB; 2 to 10 items in a carousel.
Schedule
Pick the date, time and time zone; Autoobot publishes at that minute.
Repeat
Publish the same post again every few hours or days; caption options make each one different.
A campaign for the post
Tick the option and the campaign editor opens next. Its replies start the moment the post is published, and each repeat gets its own campaign. Stories take no comments, so they have none.
Your files
Files are kept on Autoobot so Instagram can fetch them, and deleted two weeks after they are no longer needed.
Daily limit
Instagram limits how many posts an account publishes in 24 hours; a post over the limit waits and goes out later.
Scheduled comments
From a post’s tools, have the account comment once or again and again inside the hours you choose.
Your team comes first
Automatic replies always step aside for a person.
You replied in the Instagram app
Autoobot notices and pauses automatic replies in that conversation only.
You replied from the inbox
The same: the conversation is in a person’s hands until it resumes.
When they resume
After the time you choose without a reply from your team, when you resolve the conversation, or from the inbox at once.
Octo hands over
When Octo asks for a person, automatic replies stop in that conversation until someone resumes them.
The 24-hour window
Instagram decides when a business may write.
Instagram’s limits
Autoobot paces everything so accounts stay in good standing.
Paced per account
Messages, replies and posts go out at a steady pace, well under Instagram’s limits, and at most one message a second to the same person.
Private replies
Instagram allows up to 750 an hour per account; a busy campaign waits rather than being refused.
When Instagram asks to slow down
Autoobot stops for that account for the time Instagram gives, then carries on. Nothing is lost and nothing is sent twice.
Natural replies
Use reply variations and once-per-person; identical replies in bulk look like spam to Instagram.
The inbox
Instagram messages and comments arrive in the shared inbox.
Filter by account
Each account has a messages inbox and a comments inbox.
Reply from the inbox
Messages within Instagram’s window, and comments publicly under the person’s comment.
Notes and drafts
Internal notes stay with your team; Octo can draft a reply for you.
Permissions
Give each person the inbox, automatic replies, comment campaigns or publishing of each account.
Packages
Each Instagram account has its own package.
Free trial
A new account starts with a free trial; an account gets one trial only.
Replies included
AI replies and standard replies a month; team replies are never counted.
When it ends
Automatic replies, publishing and scheduled comments stop; messages still reach the inbox.
Covered by its Facebook page
An account reached through its page needs no subscription of its own. Turn it on in Billing: it has its 7-day trial, then takes a place in a Facebook package.
Troubleshooting
Start with the symptom.
Messages and comments do not arrive
Check the account shows “Receiving messages”; if not, press “Try again”. Comments arrive only for public accounts.
Nothing is answered
Check the reply type is not “Nobody”, the working hours, the package, and whether the conversation is in a person’s hands.
A private reply failed
Instagram refuses a second private reply to the same comment, replies after 7 days, and replies to people who blocked messages.
Replies stopped after I answered
That is on purpose: your reply took the conversation. It resumes after the time you set, or press “Resume automatic replies” in the inbox.
A post failed
The file must be JPEG (photos) or MP4/MOV (videos), and the account may have reached Instagram’s daily limit; the reason shows next to the post.
“Link again” on an account
Instagram’s permission ended or was removed. Sign in once more from Linked accounts; your settings stay.
Need a hand?
Send us the account’s @username and what you see; we answer on WhatsApp.
This guide follows Autoobot as it works today. Instagram’s own rules and limits may change.
Comment campaigns
Comment campaigns answer publicly, privately, or both.
All posts
One campaign for every post that has no campaign of its own.
One post
A campaign for a single post or reel, from its row on the Comments page.
Live
Private replies to comments during a Live broadcast.
Mentions
A public reply where someone @mentions the account on another post.
Example: comment to DM
One private reply per comment
Instagram allows one private message per comment, within 7 days of it. If the person writes back, the conversation continues in the inbox.
Offensive comments
Hide or delete comments with words you choose, before anything is answered.
Once per person
Answer each person once per campaign, so nobody gets the same reply twice.
Never itself
Comments written by the account, including Autoobot’s replies, are never answered.