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Connect an Instagram sender

Connecting your Instagram account to Yapper allows your assistant to automatically handle customer inquiries on Instagram by replying to direct messages (DMs) and privately replying to comments on your posts.

Requirements

Before connecting, you need an Instagram professional account (Business or Creator profile). Personal Instagram profiles cannot be connected — you can switch a personal profile to professional in the Instagram app's settings.

Connect your Instagram account

To connect your Instagram account:

1. In the dashboard, navigate to Admin → Connections.
2. Click Connect Instagram Account.
3. Log in through the Instagram Business Login popup and approve the requested permissions.
4. Once connected, your Instagram handle will appear in your sender list under Admin → Senders as an "Instagram Login" connection type.

After connection, Yapper automatically provisions a default playbook for the new sender. If your workspace already has existing playbooks, the dashboard will offer you the option to link this new sender to one of your existing playbooks.

What the assistant does on Instagram

Once connected, your assistant manages two primary types of interactions on Instagram:

Direct Messages (DMs)

The assistant replies directly to incoming DMs.

• 24-Hour Window: Meta restricts standard replies to a 24-hour window from the customer's last message. If this window closes, the composer in your Inbox will show a blocked banner, and your assistant cannot send standard messages until the customer messages you again. Note that message templates are not supported on Instagram.
• Reactions: When a customer reacts to a message with an emoji, the reaction is recorded in the conversation history. If they remove their reaction, it displays as "[reaction removed]".
• Read Statuses: You can see when messages are delivered and read by the customer directly in the message feed.

Comment Private Replies

When a customer leaves a comment on one of your Instagram posts, it flows into your Inbox as a new conversation thread, marked with a "Comment on a post" badge.

• 7-Day Reply Window: You have 7 days from the time the comment was posted to send a private reply. If the 7-day window expires, the composer displays a closed window banner, and you can no longer reply.
• Private Reply Limits: The first reply to a comment is sent as a text-only private DM. Images are disabled for the initial comment reply. Once the private reply is sent, the standard DM window is established.

DM History Import

When you connect or reconnect an Instagram account, Yapper runs a shallow history import to backfill your recent conversations.

• Import Status: In Admin → Senders, you will see an "Importing DMs" status pill during the import. If the import fails, a "DM import failed" status is shown.
• Import Limits: Yapper imports up to the 20 newest messages per conversation thread. Conversations in the "Requests" folder that have been inactive for more than 30 days are excluded.
• No Greetings: Backfilled conversations do not trigger initial automated greeting messages, preventing your assistant from sending unsolicited messages to past customers.

Disconnects and Reconnecting

If your connection becomes invalid (for example, if the access token expires or you revoke Yapper's permissions in your Instagram settings), the assistant will stop replying.

• Status Alerts: Under Admin → Senders, the affected sender will display a red disabled card.
• How to Fix: To restore the connection, click the reconnect option and complete the Instagram Login flow again. This will refresh the credentials and unblock messaging without affecting your bound playbook or conversation history.