How do I stop automations for a specific person?

“Whitelist” here means the opposite of what it sounds like: people on this list are skipped by every automation.

Steps

Option A: by username, in Settings

1. Click Account Settings in the sidebar.
2. Open the Automation tab.
3. Find Whitelist Contacts.
4. Type the person’s username in “Enter username” (without the @) and click Add.
5. Click Save at the top of Settings.

Option B: from Contacts

1. Click Contacts in the sidebar and find the person.
2. Click the stop icon on their row, or click their name and then Exclude from automation.
3. Confirm “Skip all automation for this contact?”. A message confirms the contact is excluded.

Option B adds them to the same Whitelist Contacts list, using their account number instead of their username.

On the phone app

Tap your profile photo, then Settings → Automation. Under Whitelist Contacts, type the username, tap Add, then tap Save Changes.

What the person sees

Nothing from your automations. They can still comment and message you, and you can reply to them yourself in Instagram or Facebook.

Good to know

• It stops everything for that person: comment replies, DMs, story replies, DM keywords, flows, AI replies and pending follow-up messages.
• The setting is per InstantDM account. If you manage several accounts, add the person on each one.
• A username entry stops matching if the person changes their username. Entries added from Contacts use their account number, which doesn’t change.
• On Contacts, the exclude button is hidden when you filter by a flow that has no AI step. Clear the filter to see it.
• The button’s tooltip mentions “Safety settings”. The list is actually on the Automation tab.

How to turn it off

Open Account Settings → Automation → Whitelist Contacts, click the × on the entry, then click Save. Entries added from Contacts show as a number, for example “@1784…”.

Other ways to quiet the bot

• Stop only the AI for one person: How do I take over a chat from the AI?
• Stop automations while you’re chatting with someone: How do I stop automations from interrupting when I’m chatting?