Instagram automations

Set up a reply

1. Open your brand and click Automations.
2. Click New automation and choose your Instagram account.
3. Under When someone, choose what starts the reply.
4. Add words to watch for, if needed. Separate words with commas.
5. Write the DM they will get. Add a link if you need one.
6. Check the sample conversation, then click Save draft.

The preview sends nothing. Go live is only available when your account and Instagram setup are ready.

Choose what starts it

• Comments on a post or reel: watch for words in comments. Choose all posts or selected posts.
• Sends a DM with specific words: reply when a DM contains one of your words.

A reply to a waiting conversation comes first. It does not also start a keyword reply.

Stop and restart replies

People can send Stop or Unsubscribe on its own to pause automated DMs from that account.

Start or Subscribe turns them back on. Capitals do not matter. These words cannot be changed.

Instagram allows automated conversation replies within 24 hours of the person's last message. A comment allows one private reply first.

Set up Instagram

1. In Automations, open the Instagram setup tab.
2. Choose your Instagram account, or click Connect Instagram.
3. Allow messages and comments, then enable Instagram events.
4. Check that all four steps are ready before making an automation live.

Use the tabs along the top to open Automations, Contacts or Collected emails.

Find and sort automations

Search by name in the toolbar. Open Filters & sort to choose a trigger, status or sort order.

Use Reset to clear the filters and return to most recently changed. Search and filters appear once you have automations.

Run counts include runs that could not finish. Link clicks are not tracked yet.

Use Trash

1. Open the actions menu beside an automation.
2. Choose Move to Trash and confirm.
3. Open Trash to find it later.
4. Choose Restore as draft to bring it back.

An automation in Trash stops running. A restored draft stays off until you make it live again.

Delete forever removes an item from Trash for good. You cannot restore it after that.

Recent run records still use the normal 30-day retention period. Trash counts towards the limit of 100 automations per brand.

View contacts and export a list

1. In Automations, click Contacts.
2. Search by contact, source automation or tag.
3. Click Export CSV to download the list. With a search, click Export matches.
4. Click View conversation to open a person's recent messages.

Contacts come from runs in the last 30 days. First retained run is not a person's first-ever message.

A person can appear once per Instagram account. If a username is not known, Wahlu shows their Instagram contact ID.

Follow confirmed and Shared email show past actions. They do not prove someone still follows you or wants marketing emails.

Link clicks are not tracked yet. The list and export show up to 5,000 contacts, with a notice when there are more.

Contacts leave the list when their last run passes 30 days. Saved emails stay in Collected emails until deleted.

For other deletion requests, see Data deletion.

Read a conversation and take over

1. Open Contacts, then click View conversation.
2. Choose a pause length and click Pause replies.
3. Click Reply in Instagram to open your Instagram inbox.
4. Find the chat and reply there.
5. Back in Wahlu, use Refresh to check for new saved messages.

You can also open a conversation from an automation's Insights tab.

The view is read-only. It shows saved messages, with automated replies labelled. Older runs may have no message history.

Saved messages are kept for 30 days. Replies sent outside Wahlu pause automations for 30 minutes. Unconfirmed sends can also cause a pause.

End pause allows new matching flows. It does not restart old flows or extend Instagram's 24-hour reply window.

If someone sent Stop, only they can turn replies back on with Start.

Saved advanced replies

Editing for AI replies, default replies, story replies and follow checks is unavailable for now.

Existing saved settings are kept. You can view a saved automation and pause it if it is live.

Collect an email

Turn on A DM asking for their email in a comment flow. This needs the opening DM first.

Say how you will use the email. People can skip the request. You can download saved emails from Collected emails.

Get told when it is ready

1. Open your brand.
2. Click Automations in the brand menu.
3. Click Notify me when it's ready.

You see We'll let you know. We will tell you when you can use it.