This guide aims to help you make your chatbot available on Instagram, ensuring it is ready to interact with users as soon as messages are sent to your business account.
⚠️ Attention: To make a chatbot available on Instagram, you must have permanent administrator permissions for the company’s Facebook page and Instagram account. We also recommend reading Instagram’s official technical documentation regarding message management.
Prerequisites
Before proceeding, make sure you have completed the required steps:
How messages work on Instagram
After linking and publishing the chatbot, all messages sent to your business account on Instagram will automatically be redirected to the chatbot.
The chatbot will be responsible for responding to these messages, following the conversation flows you’ve set up, if it’s a flow-based chatbot, or generating dynamic responses based on Generative AI.
Example use case
Let’s assume the scenario:
A bank wants to offer automated and efficient support to clients contacting via Instagram, quickly answering questions about banking services and business hours.
How it works in a Flow-based Chatbot
The chatbot guides the client in a structured way, providing clear information and responding according to the established flow.
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Customer question: "What are the business hours of the branches?"
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Chatbot response: The chatbot, following the pre-configured flow, replies: "Our branches operate Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 4 pm. Do you need help with anything else?"
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Next interaction: If the customer needs more information, such as the location of a branch, the chatbot can ask for the customer’s ZIP code and provide the nearest branch.
How it works in a Generative AI-based Chatbot
The Generative AI-based chatbot offers more personalized and contextual responses, better adapting to questions beyond the pre-defined flow, and provides a more natural support experience.
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Customer question: "How do I check my balance?"
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Chatbot response: The Generative AI-based chatbot processes the question and responds dynamically: "You can check your balance by accessing our banking app or Internet Banking. If you prefer, I can guide you through the process. What’s your preference?"
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Next interaction: If the client asks additional questions, such as "Can I check my balance over the phone?", the chatbot will respond contextually, explaining the available options, such as phone or WhatsApp balance inquiry.
The articles below can help you create chatbots. If you wish, feel free to access them:
Setting up conversation triggers on Instagram
With Instagram already set up and linked to the chatbot, you can customize which interactions will trigger a support session. To do this, follow the steps below:
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Go to the chatbot’s Channels screen.
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On the Instagram card, click on Options
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Choose Set up conversation triggers and define which user interactions on Instagram will activate the chatbot:
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Direct messages: Automated responses to messages sent via Direct. This option is default and cannot be disabled.
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Comments on posts: Automatic responses to comments on any post from the linked account.
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Comments on live broadcasts: Automated responses to comments during live broadcasts on Instagram.
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For interactions that occur in Comments on posts and Comments on live broadcasts, you can choose to activate the functionality with Any comment or With keywords. By enabling the latter option, the chatbot will only be triggered when comments contain the keywords you define. For example, you can set up keywords like "I want", "Help me", etc., to automatically start a conversation with the customer.
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Finish by clicking Confirm after setting up the triggers to ensure the new settings are active on the chatbot.
When a user submits a comment on a post or live stream on Instagram, we receive a data structure similar to this:
{
"text": "eu quero!",
"interaction": {
"id": "7573188976074674",
"type": "comment",
"source": "post"
}
}
This data is used to trigger the chatbot and generate automatic interactions, such as personalized responses or redirection to specific services.
Done! Now just publish the chatbot and all messages sent or triggers configured for your Instagram business account will be automatically redirected to the chatbot.