How do I auto-reply to everyone who messages me on Instagram?

Before you start

• Your Instagram account must be connected to InstantDM.
• This is on Legend Pro and above.
• You can have only one Any Message automation per account. Keep one “answer everything” rule only, across DM automations and flows. If several exist, only one of them runs.
• It answers everyone, including friends, brands and customers you’re already talking to. Read stop automations while chatting first.

Steps

1. On Home, click New Automation. (The DM Automation card on Home skips the next choice.)
2. Choose DM Automation, then click Instagram DMs and Next.
3. On “What should it send?”, click Lead Gen. The step editor opens.
4. Type a name for the automation at the top.
5. Under ENTRY POINT, choose Any Message.
6. Under ⏱️ Select Interval, choose one:
   • First time only: each person gets the reply once, ever.
   • Once a day: each person gets it at most once every 24 hours.
7. Click Add Step and choose Text Message. Write your reply. For example: “Hi, thanks for your message. I reply to DMs every evening. For prices, see the link in my bio.”
8. Click Save, then Publish & Activate.

You’ll see the error “An “Any Message” trigger flow already exists. Only one can be created per account.” if one already exists. Edit that one instead.

On the phone app

1. Open Instagram and tap the DM tab.
2. Tap Create New.
3. Under Trigger, choose Automate All Messages.
4. Under ⏱️ Select Interval, pick First time only or Once a day.
5. Tap Add Next Step, add a Text Message, then tap Publish.

What your followers see

They send you any message. Your reply arrives in the same chat a moment later. With First time only, they never get it again. With Once a day, they may get it again if they write the next day.

Good to know

• If a message matches one of your keyword automations, the keyword automation answers it instead.
• A keyword automation has no such limit: it answers every time the keyword is sent. Only Any Message has First time only and Once a day.
• Rarely, the same person can still get the reply twice, for example when they share a post with a note (Instagram sends two messages a second apart).
• If you also reply to people by hand, turn on Prevent In-Chat Trigger.
• To keep certain people out completely, exclude them.

What you can’t do

• Set office hours (for example, reply only at night).
• Have more than one Any Message automation on the same account.
• Reset First time only for one person so they get it again. Deleting and re-creating the automation doesn’t reset it either.

How to turn it off

Go to Quick Automation → Instagram → switch to DM Automation, and flip the automation’s switch off. See turn off or edit an automation.

If it doesn’t work

• Someone got nothing: with First time only, they may have received it before. With Once a day, it may already have gone out in the last 24 hours.
• It stays quiet in some chats: Prevent In-Chat Trigger saw a recent message from your account in that chat.
• See why didn’t my automation send a DM?.