Instagram Direct messages in your shared inbox
Kommio brings Instagram DMs into a shared customer support inbox: direct messages, replies to your stories and mentions of your account, for the professional account linked to your Facebook Page, answered from the inbox your team already works from.
One conversation model, whatever the channel.
Instagram conversations sit in the same list as every other channel, with one owner and one history, so nobody asks the customer to repeat themselves.
What your agent sees
Direct messages arrive with the customer's name and Instagram user name. A reply to your story shows the story, a mention shows theirs, shared posts and reels arrive as a title and a link, and the composer shows when the 24-hour window closes.
What your customer sees
They message your account as usual and see your reply in Instagram, with a seen mark. A bot's choices arrive as quick replies, and a satisfaction survey while the window is open.
Assignment and automation apply
Rules, SLA policies, assignment, agent bots and the AI agent apply. A chatbot flow's choices become quick replies, up to 13. Bots and flows cannot start a conversation: the customer writes first.
Reports count it
Instagram conversations count like every other channel's, with Instagram as its own slice of the channel mix and the inbox as a filter.
The facts that matter for Instagram.
The 24-hour window
Within 24 hours of the customer's last message anyone can reply. After that only a person can answer, for up to seven days, with the Human Agent permission approved for your app; Instagram accepts no other tag.
Stories and mentions
A reply to your story and a mention of your account in a customer's story open conversations like any message, with the story's address while the story lasts.
A professional account linked to a Page
Instagram messaging here runs through the Facebook Page the account is linked to, with Allow access to messages on in the Instagram app. The same Meta app can serve the Page's Messenger inbox and its Instagram inbox.
What goes out
Text up to 1,000 characters (Instagram counts bytes, so accents and emoji use more), pictures up to 8 MB, videos and audio. Other files are refused with the reason.
Replies from the Instagram app show up
A message sent from the Instagram app or Meta Business Suite appears in the conversation marked as sent outside Kommio.
Going live with Meta
While the app is in development mode only people with a role on it can message the account. For real customers the app needs Advanced Access through App Review, which needs Business verification; it takes Meta from days to weeks, so plan for it before going live.
Not yet. The newer Instagram API with Instagram Login, for an account with no Facebook Page, is not supported yet.
Built against Meta's documented APIs and verified live as workspaces connect their apps.
What you need to connect Instagram.
An administrator does this from Settings. Nothing to install on your side beyond what the channel's own platform asks for.
A professional account linked to your Page
An Instagram business or creator account linked to a Facebook Page you administer, with Allow access to messages on under Settings › Messages and story replies in the Instagram app.
A Meta app, a Page token and the app secret
A Meta app of type Business with the Messenger product, granted instagram_basic, instagram_manage_messages and pages_manage_metadata; a Page access token that does not expire and the app secret.
Test and go
Settings › Marketplace › Instagram › Install in this workspace. Paste both, press Test connection, and Kommio sets the app's webhook and subscribes the Page. Send the account a Direct message and your reply comes back.
Step by step, with the exact fields and what to do when something does not arrive: Facebook Messenger and Instagram: tokens, setup, the window and tags.
Coming from another help desk? Kommio as an alternative to Chatwoot, Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk or Help Scout, and what free help desk software really means.
Other channels
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