Do DMs reach people who don't follow me or have private accounts?

Before you start

• Everyone sees the fallback reply, because it is a public comment under the person’s comment. Write it so you are happy for your whole audience to read it.
• The follow gate (sending the link only to followers) is on Legend Pro and above, and works on Instagram only.

Steps

1. Open Quick Automation, click the Instagram tab, choose Posts and click your post.
2. Open its Send Link or PDF card.
3. Expand Comment Reply for Non-Followers.
   • You’ll see: “Sometimes Instagram restricts sending DMs to users who don’t follow you. In those cases, we’ll reply with these comments instead of sending a DM.”
4. Click Add Fallback Comment, type a friendly line, and press Enter. Add a few different lines so the replies don’t all look the same.
5. Optional: turn on Ask audience to follow you before sending link! if you want only followers to get the link. See follow before link.
6. Click Publish.

On the phone app

Open Home → Instagram → Posts, tap the post and open Send Link or Images. Add your lines under Comment Reply for Non-Followers. The follow gate is the Follow For Link switch. Tap Publish.

What your followers see

Situation	What they get
Follows you, or Instagram accepts the DM	Your DM, as normal
Doesn’t follow you and Instagram refuses the DM	No DM. A public reply under their comment, using your fallback lines or the built-in one
Follow gate on, doesn’t follow you	A DM card ”🔓 Follow to Unlock Exclusive Content” with Open Profile and Started following you! 👍
Private account	Same as anyone else. Instagram decides if it is delivered

Good to know

• InstantDM does not check whether someone follows you before sending, unless the follow gate is on.
• In a DM Sequence, the fallback reply is used only for the first message.
• With the follow gate on, if Instagram can’t answer the “do they follow you?” check, the person is treated as a follower and gets the link.
• DMs that Instagram refuses are listed in Automation Recovery → Missed & Failed as Message rejected, with Instagram’s reason.
• Facebook Page posts have no follow gate.

What you can’t do

• Make a DM land in the main inbox instead of Message Requests.
• Check whether someone has a private account.
• Promise that only followers get the link. The follow check can be skipped when Instagram doesn’t answer it.

If it doesn’t work

• Many rows say Message rejected in Missed & Failed: read Instagram’s reason under each row, then see why didn’t my automation send a DM?
• People followed but still get the follow card: see follow message keeps coming.