How do I see, search and export my contacts?

Before you start

• Contacts lists people collected by Flow Automation (multi-step chats) and Lead Gen (a DM that asks for name, email or phone). The page says so itself: “Quick Send-Link contacts won’t appear here.”
• It shows contacts created after 25 August 2026. Older ones aren’t lost; they just don’t show here.
• For people who got a simple link DM, see How do I see who got my DM?

Steps

1. Click Contacts in the sidebar.
2. Pick Instagram or Facebook at the top. The page remembers your choice in this browser.
3. Read the table:
   • Contact: username and account number. Facebook people show their name.
   • Tags, Fields (hover “N fields” to see the answers), Added date.
4. Use ← Previous and Next → to move between pages (25 per page).
5. To narrow the list, choose a tag in Filter by tag, or a flow in Filter by flow. You can use one at a time.
6. Click a name to open their details: custom fields, tags and the flow they are in right now.
7. To download, click Export. The CSV follows the filter you have on.
   • You’ll see “Exported N contacts.”
   • Columns: contact ID, username, tags, takeover status, date added, then one column per field (for example email and phone).

On the phone app

The app has no Contacts page and no export. It lists people per post (Contacts tab on the post), per DM automation (Contacts button) and per flow (Flows). Use the web app at app.instantdm.com to export.

Good to know

• Search covers only the page you’re looking at. The box “Search username, id or tag” looks through the 25 rows on screen, not your whole list. To find someone in a flow, open that flow’s contact list, whose search covers everyone. See How do I see who went through a flow?
• Exports with a flow filter stop at the 200 most recent contacts. For a full export, clear the flow filter, or tag those people and export by tag.
• Exports without a filter or with a tag filter include everyone.
• Filter by flow lists everyone who started that flow, including people from before 25 August 2026 and people with no tags or answers.
• The CSV opens correctly in Excel and Google Sheets, emoji included.
• “Unknown” instead of a username means Instagram didn’t share it yet. InstantDM tries to fill it in when you open the page.
• To delete a contact, click the bin icon on the row and confirm “Delete this contact and all their tags/fields?”.

What you can’t do

• Import contacts.
• Sort by a column, or select many contacts at once to tag or delete them.
• Combine a tag filter and a flow filter.
• See two Instagram accounts in one list. Switch accounts first.
• Reply to people from here. Reply in the Instagram or Facebook app.

If it doesn’t work

• The list is empty → you have no flows or Lead Gen automations yet, or nobody has gone through them since 25 August 2026.
• An export has exactly 200 rows → a flow filter was on. Clear it and export again.