The comments are where the new business is, and where the risk is
The Instagram integration for agencies covers the two things a social team spends its day on: getting a post out with an approval attached to it, and dealing with what arrives underneath. The second one is where an agency earns its retainer, and it is also the one place a wrong automated message becomes a client incident.
What connecting it changes
Instagram, once it is connected
Comments and direct messages on a connected business account are read, attached to the client they belong to, and answered from drafts. Posts are drafted and published on approval. Reach and post performance come back as numbers for the report rather than as a screenshot somebody took.
Generated from the registry
Everything NeoAI can do with it
This list is not written by hand. It is the same catalogue of typed actions the operator executes through, so it cannot promise more than the product does — reads first, then the writes, each of which waits for a person.
Reads
Run unattended, scoped to what you designated for that client.
- Read recent postsRecent media on the connected business account.
- Read post insightImpressions and engagement on one post, by its id.
- Read comments on a postComments on one post, newest first. The source a keyword automation watches.
- Read account reachReach, impressions and profile views over a window, for the weekly digest.
Writes
Every one waits for a named person to approve it.
- Post to InstagramPublishes an image with a caption. Instagram has no delete tool, so this cannot be taken back.
- Reply to a commentPosts a public reply under someone’s comment. Instagram exposes no delete, so it cannot be taken back.
- Send a direct messageSends one direct message to a person who commented or wrote in. It cannot be unsent.
- Send a photo in a direct messageSends one image, with an optional caption, to a person who messaged this account in the last day. It cannot be unsent.
- Reply privately to a commentSends one direct message to the person who left a comment, addressed to the comment itself. This is the only way to DM a commenter: an ordinary DM is refused unless they messaged the account in the last day. Allowed for seven days after the comment, once. It cannot be unsent.
What it cannot do
- It needs an Instagram business or creator account connected through Meta. A personal account has no API and cannot be connected by anybody.
- Publishing is a write and waits for approval. There is no bulk publishing and no scheduling queue of its own.
- A direct message may only go to somebody who has already written to the account. It cannot start a conversation with a stranger and it cannot message a list.
- Insights are what Meta exposes for a business account, which is less than what the app shows a human, and stories and reels behave differently from feed posts.
What this changes
Three specifics, rather than a feature list
Comments read, replies drafted
The comments on a post come back newest first, and a reply is prepared for the ones that need one — publicly under the comment, or as a direct message to the person who left it.
The one thing that may run unattended
A reply to somebody who just contacted the account, on the channel they used. Four capabilities in the whole product carry that flag and this is where two of them are.
Reach, for the report
Account reach and per-post engagement over a window, read into the client’s report rather than assembled by hand at month end.
Why the exception is shaped like that
A comment-to-DM automation whose message waits for a button is not an automation. The comment arrives at 02:14, the reply goes out at 09:30, and the person who asked for the link has gone. That is the eight hours the entire category is bought for.
So there is an exception, and it is small enough to state exactly: a reply, to somebody who just contacted this account, on the channel they used, from the account they contacted. The recipient is not chosen by anything — they chose you, seconds ago, by writing in. Five separate things must be true before one goes out.
- The capability itself carries the flag. Four do, across the whole product.
- The workflow has unattended sending switched on, which is off by default and admin-only.
- The operator’s kill switch is not down.
- The workspace’s plan includes unattended operation.
- The workflow is under its daily cap.
What it will never do
Post without approval. Message somebody who has not messaged first. Follow, unfollow, like at volume, or anything else that would look like growth automation — none of those are capabilities, which means they are not features that were switched off, they are actions the registry does not contain.
Facebook, and the pages that come with it
The same connection covers a client’s Facebook page — posts, reach and the Messenger conversations that arrive on it — under the same rules. Agencies usually connect both, per client, because that is how their clients are set up.
Questions people ask about this
Does this need a business account?
Yes, and that is Meta’s rule rather than ours. A personal Instagram account has no interface for any product to connect to.
Can it DM people who commented?
It can reply to somebody who has contacted the account, which includes the person who left the comment it is answering. It cannot open a conversation with somebody who has not.
Will it post to a client’s account without approval?
No. Publishing is a write and every write waits for a named person. The unattended exception is replies only, and it is off until an admin turns it on.
Which numbers can it read?
Account reach and impressions over a window, and impressions and engagement per post. That is what Meta exposes for a business account; it is not everything the app shows a human, and the report says which figures came from where.
Last reviewed on . Something out of date or wrong? Tell us and it gets fixed.
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Point it at one client and see what it prepares.
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