Add an AI chatbot to Instagram DMs
Your assistant answers Direct Messages, in its own voice
Somebody asks your shop a question at eleven at night and waits until Monday for an answer. Connect the account and your assistant replies from the same content your website answers from, while a person on your team can take any conversation over in one click.
What it does
It answers from your own content
The same knowledge base, and its own voice: a DM gets a short reply written for a phone, not the three paragraphs a web page can carry. The instructions, the model and the questions it asks are Instagram's own, so tuning them does not change your website.
A person takes over in one click
Every conversation shows what was said and how long is left to reply. Switch the assistant off for one customer and the thread is yours; their messages keep arriving and the assistant stays quiet until you hand it back.
A conversation becomes a contact
Instagram never gives anyone an email or a phone number, so the assistant asks inside the thread, one question at a time, and saves each answer as it arrives. An address you already have joins that contact instead of making a second one.
How to connect it
Read the full guide- 1
Make the account professional
Business or Creator, in the Instagram app. A personal account cannot be connected to any messaging API, ours included.
- 2
Connect it
Social media, Instagram, choose the knowledge base, sign in with Instagram. No Facebook Page is involved and no Page administrator has to be found.
- 3
Write what it says
Its instructions, the longest reply you want, and the line that tells people they are talking to a bot. Meta requires that disclosure and we send it once per conversation.
- 4
Watch the first ones
The inbox shows every thread with a live countdown. Take one over whenever an answer needs a person.
Questions people ask
Can I connect my account today?
Not yet. Meta's App Review and Business Verification are what let us serve an account that is not our own, and they are under way. The date on this page is when we expect to open it; until then the integration runs on our own account only.
How long can the assistant reply for?
24 hours from each message somebody sends you. That is Meta's rule for every automated system on the platform, not a setting. After it runs out, a person on your team can still reply for seven days, from the inbox in WelcomeAI.
Do I need a Facebook Page?
No. We use Business Login for Instagram, so the sign-in screen asks for the Instagram account itself. That matters because a lot of shops either have no Page or cannot remember who administers theirs.
Will I get the customer's email?
Only if they type it. Meta supplies a username, a display name and a profile picture, and never an email or a phone number, through any permission. The assistant asks for contact details in the conversation, which is how an Instagram thread becomes a lead you can follow up.
Can it read photos and story replies?
They arrive and are recorded in the conversation, and the assistant does not answer them yet. A message with no words is left alone rather than answered with an apology for not being able to see it.
Does it reply to comments too?
Not yet. This is Direct Messages. Comments and mentions are a separate permission on the same Meta app and are the natural next step.
What teams use it for
Upload your documents, get answers that cite them
One knowledge base, an AI chat or an Ask AI search on any site, and every answer with the passage it came from. Free for 14 days.