Community

Instagram DM inbox and Auto-DM

Learn how Instagram DMs work on every plan and how Growth and Scale add Auto-DM rules.

Reviewed 2026-09-06

The Instagram DM inbox is available on Starter, Growth and Scale. Auto-DM is available on Growth and Scale. Facebook DMs are not currently available in Flockly.

Choose the right type of response

Flockly keeps several Instagram response types in Community, but they do different jobs:

  • Public reply: appears beneath the original comment where other people can see it.
  • Private reply: sends a direct message linked to a recent comment on your Instagram post.
  • DM reply: continues an available conversation in the Instagram DM inbox.
  • Auto-DM: watches a live Instagram post or Reel and sends a prepared private message when a new comment matches the rule.

Check the selected action before sending. A public reply cannot be made private after it appears on Instagram.

Use the Instagram DM inbox

Open Community → DMs to read the Instagram conversations available to Flockly. Select a conversation, review the recent messages and write the reply in the composer.

Meta accepts a reply within 24 hours of the person's last message. Older threads can remain visible but may be view-only.

If the reply box is unavailable, wait for the person to message the business again. Reconnecting Instagram does not reopen an expired conversation window.

Create an Auto-DM rule

Auto-DM is a Growth and Scale feature that watches comments on a post that is already live on Instagram.

  1. Open Community → Auto-DM and choose New automation.
  2. Select the live Instagram post or Reel to monitor.
  3. Leave keywords blank to match every new comment, or add words such as LINK to respond only when a comment contains one of them.
  4. Write the private message. You can optionally add up to three product or collection buttons that lead to your public storefront.
  5. Review the post, trigger and message, then start the rule.

Flockly checks for new comments about every 15 minutes, so a matching message is not necessarily sent immediately. Each eligible comment receives at most one Auto-DM from the rule. Repeated checks do not deliberately send the same private reply again.

Monitor and control a rule

Open a rule to see its current status, sent count, message, buttons and recent activity. The status explains whether the rule can still send:

  • Running means the rule is checking for matching comments.
  • Resuming means the rule is starting again after a pause.
  • Paused keeps the rule and its settings but temporarily stops new checks.
  • Stopped ends the rule and releases that Instagram post for a future automation.
  • Expired means the rule reached the end of its 15-day monitoring period.

Use Pause when you expect to continue with the same rule. Use Stop when the campaign is finished but you want to keep its record. Use Delete when you no longer need the rule or its activity record.

Current Auto-DM limits

  • Auto-DM is Instagram-only and requires a connected Instagram account.
  • The selected Instagram post or Reel must already be live.
  • One post can have one active or paused rule at a time.
  • An Instagram profile can currently create up to two new Auto-DM rules within 24 hours.
  • Each rule monitors for 15 days, then expires.
  • A private reply is only available for a comment less than seven days old.
  • If Instagram's daily messaging capacity is reached, a rule can pause and continue the next day.

These limits affect whether a message can be sent even when the rule itself is configured correctly.

If Auto-DM does not send

  • No posts are available: publish an Instagram post or Reel, then refresh the post choices.
  • The post is already in use: open its existing rule. Stop that rule before creating another one for the same post.
  • A keyword rule has no matches: confirm that the new comment contains at least one configured word. Leave the keyword list blank if every new comment should match.
  • The comment is too old: Instagram only accepts a private reply while the comment is less than seven days old.
  • The rule is paused or expired: resume a paused rule, or create a new rule if the previous one expired.
  • The daily creation limit was reached: wait until the next 24-hour period before creating another rule for that Instagram profile.

Need help?

Contact Flockly with your Shopify store name, the Instagram post or conversation involved and the exact message shown. Do not include customer message content unless it is necessary to investigate the issue.