Instant replies on Instagram and Facebook: how to set them up

You can set up an auto reply for your Instagram business account and your Facebook Page in one place: the Inbox in Meta Business Suite, under Automations. It takes a few minutes, and the same reply can cover Messenger and Instagram direct messages at once. Below are the steps, ready-to-use wording, and the reasons an automation sometimes stays silent.

What an instant reply can and cannot do

Meta calls these Inbox automations. They work for Facebook Pages, Instagram business accounts and WhatsApp Business accounts that are connected to Meta Business Suite. The ones that matter most for a small business:

What none of them can do is have a conversation. An automation answers the easy part and buys you time. The person still expects a human after it, so the reply should say when that human will show up.

Before you start

• Your Instagram account has to be a business account connected to Meta Business Suite. If you have not done that yet, our article on what Meta Business Suite is explains the setup.
• To answer Instagram messages from the Inbox, you need full control of the Instagram account, and you have to allow access to Instagram messages once: open the Inbox, click the Instagram tab, confirm, and log in to Instagram.
• On the phone, you need Facebook access to the Page or task access to messages.
• Keyword automations and Comment to message are set up on a computer only. The mobile app has the templates.

Set it up on a computer

1. Open Meta Business Suite and check that the right business portfolio is selected in the top left.
2. Go to Inbox and click the Automations icon.
3. Click Create automation and pick a template, for example Instant reply.
4. Under Channel, tick Messenger, Instagram or both. Some automations are not available on every channel.
5. Write your message. You can add a photo or video, or a button with your own label that opens your website.
6. Click Save changes, then make sure the switch under Status is on.

A new automation can take a few minutes to show up. Refresh the page if you do not see it.

Set it up on your phone

1. In the Meta Business Suite app, tap Inbox.
2. Tap the icon in the top right corner, then Automations.
3. Tap the template you want.
4. Under Platforms, switch on Instagram, Messenger or both.
5. Write the message. For Frequently asked questions you can add up to 5 questions, each with its answer.
6. For the Away message, open Schedule, pick your time zone, tap Add to schedule and choose the days and hours you are away.
7. Tap Save.

What to write: four examples

Say you run a small bakery that answers messages between baking runs. Plain, short and specific works best.

Instant reply: "Thanks for your message. We bake in the mornings and answer messages after 2 p.m. If it is about an order for today, please call (555) 010-0142."

Away message: "We are closed right now and will answer tomorrow from 8 a.m. Our hours and menu are at the link in our profile."

Hours: "Tuesday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday."

Frequently asked questions: "Do you take custom cake orders?", "Is there parking?", "Do you have gluten-free bread?" Each with a two-line answer.

Notice what the examples avoid: no "we will get back to you shortly" without a time, no exclamation-filled cheer, no promise you cannot keep on a busy Saturday. How fast the human part should follow is a separate question, and we answered it in how fast a business should reply to comments and messages.

Keyword replies have rules of their own

Custom keyword automations are the most useful and the easiest to get wrong. Meta's help page lists the rules:

• One automation can listen for up to 5 keywords or phrases.
• Keywords are case-sensitive, and the reply goes out only on an exact match. Use your five slots for the spellings people really type, such as "Menu" and "menu".
• One keyword can belong to only one automation.
• A keyword reply goes out after 15 minutes, unless you answer the person yourself before then.
• If a template automation, such as the Away message, fires on the same message, Meta sends the template and skips the keyword reply.

When the auto reply does not work

Go through this list before you rebuild anything:

• The Away message has no on and off switch. It follows your schedule. To turn it off completely, set yourself as available every day from 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.
• Instagram messages are missing. The Inbox only shows your main Instagram folder. Messages sitting in Hidden requests on Instagram do not reach it.
• An automation is not on the list. Some, like Frequently asked questions or Custom keywords, are not available everywhere because of privacy rules in Europe and Japan.
• Replies go out that you never wrote. Messages from Inbox automations end with "Sent by automated response". If yours do not, the reply comes from a click-to-message ad template, the Messenger welcome message, or a connected third-party app (Page settings, then Page setup, then Advanced messaging).
• Your automations all stopped at once. If someone on your team turned on Meta Business Agent, Meta pauses existing automations such as away messages and instant replies.
• Wrong account. Check the business portfolio selector in the top left. If the Page or Instagram account sits in another portfolio, the automation lives there. Our guide to the Meta business portfolio explains how portfolios work.

Meta renames buttons now and then. If a step here does not match your screen, the help pages linked below have the current wording.

After the auto reply comes the real answer

An instant reply is a promise: "a person will answer soon". If nobody does, it can feel worse than silence. If you would rather not be the one keeping that promise every weekday, our Comments & Messages service ($59 a month, on top of a posting plan) does it for you: we answer comments and direct messages Monday to Friday, within one business day, using a cheat sheet of answers you approve. Anything not on the sheet goes straight to you the same day. See the monthly services.