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# Instagram DM Automations: Comment and Keyword-Triggered Replies
> Automatically DM people who comment a keyword on your Instagram post or message you one, with multi-step flows, buttons, follow-gating, and templates.
Automations let Hivra send an Instagram DM for you the moment someone comments a keyword on one of your posts, or sends your account a DM containing one. Each automation is a small message flow — up to five messages, with buttons that open a link or send the next message — so you can turn "comment GUIDE below" into an automatic, multi-step conversation that hands someone a link, checks that they follow you first, or both.
Automations are Instagram only. They are not available for Facebook Pages, YouTube, TikTok, X, or Threads.
## Where to find it
Automations live under **Dashboard → Engagement**, alongside the **Comments** and **Messages** tabs. Click the **Automations** tab to see every automation you've created and to build a new one.
Automations requires a paid Hivra plan and a connected Instagram professional account. If no Instagram account is connected, the tab shows a prompt to connect one instead of the automation list. If your Instagram account needs new DM permissions, a banner at the top asks you to reconnect it from **Integrations** before automations can send messages.
## How a flow works
An automation has three parts:
* **A trigger** — what starts the flow: a comment on a post, or a DM you receive.
* **A match** — whether the comment or DM needs to contain (or exactly be) one of your keywords, or whether any comment qualifies.
* **A message flow** — one to five messages. Each message can have buttons: a **Continue** button that sends the next message when tapped, or a link button that opens a URL. The first message is sent as soon as the trigger matches; later messages only go out after the person taps a button (or, if Instagram refuses the buttons, after they reply).
Hivra never messages anyone who hasn't commented or messaged your account. Comment automations use Instagram's private reply, which only works within **7 days** of the comment. A comment or DM sent before you created the automation never triggers it, even if it matches.
## Creating an automation
Go to **Dashboard → Engagement** and click the **Automations** tab.
Select **New automation**. This is disabled if none of your connected Instagram accounts can currently send DMs (for example, while one needs reconnecting).
Give the automation a name (for your own reference — it isn't shown to the person who triggers it) and pick which connected **Instagram account** it runs on.
Under **Start when someone**, choose **Comments on a post** or **Sends you a DM keyword**. See [Trigger types](#trigger-types) below.
Choose whether the comment or DM needs to **contain a keyword**, be **exactly** a keyword, or (comments only) match **anything**. Then list your keywords, separated by commas.
Apply the automation to **all posts and reels**, or pick **specific posts** from a thumbnail picker of your account's recent content.
Write your opening message and add buttons and further messages as needed, or start from a template and adjust it. See [Building the message flow](#building-the-message-flow).
Click **Create automation**. The automation is enabled by default and starts matching new comments or DMs right away.
A live preview on the right of the automation editor shows roughly how the flow will look inside Instagram as you build it — the triggering comment or DM, each message bubble, and the taps that move someone to the next one.
## Trigger types
| Trigger | Starts when | Opening message is sent as |
| - | - | - |
| **Comments on a post** | Someone comments on a post or reel you chose | A private reply to their comment |
| **Sends you a DM keyword** | Someone sends your account a DM containing a keyword | A reply to their DM |
Only comment automations can match **Anything** — useful for a flow that replies to every comment on a specific post. DM-keyword automations always need at least one keyword, since Hivra can't reply to every DM you receive without one.
## Matching keywords
Under **When the comment** / **When the DM**, choose how strictly a keyword has to match:
* **Contains a keyword** — the comment or DM includes the word or phrase anywhere.
* **Is exactly a keyword** — the comment or DM, once trimmed, has to equal the keyword.
* **Anything** (comments only) — every comment on the targeted post(s) matches, regardless of text.
Enter one or more keywords separated by commas. Matching is **not case-sensitive**, and punctuation and accents are ignored — `café` matches `CAFE!!`.
Keywords can include emoji. A keyword made up only of emoji, like 🔥, matches any comment or DM containing that emoji. A keyword that mixes words and emoji, like `guide 🔥`, needs **both** the word and the emoji present. Plain, word-only keywords ignore any emoji in the text, so `guide` still matches "guide please 🙏".
Click the smiley icon next to the keywords field (or any message field) to open Hivra's emoji picker and insert an emoji at your cursor instead of typing it.
## Targeting specific posts
For comment automations, choose **All posts and reels** to match comments anywhere, or **Specific posts** to restrict the automation to a hand-picked set. Selecting **Specific posts** opens a thumbnail grid of the account's recent posts and reels, paginated 24 at a time — click a thumbnail to select or deselect it.
If no posts appear in the picker, they haven't synced yet. Recent posts show up here after Hivra's next analytics sync for that account.
## Building the message flow
Each automation has one to five messages. The first is always the opening message (the private reply or DM reply); add up to four more with **Add message**.
For every message you can set:
* **Text** — up to 640 characters, with its own emoji button.
* **Buttons** — up to 3 per message. Each is either:
* **Continue** — sends the next message when tapped. Not available on the last message in the flow (there's nothing after it to send).
* **Open a link** — opens a URL you provide. Links must be a full address starting with `https://` or `http://`.
Button labels are limited to 20 characters. Hivra requires every message except the last to have a **Continue** button, so people always have a way to reach the next step.
Use **Start from a template** above the message list to begin from one of three starting points, then edit the text, buttons, and links as you like:
* **Send a link** — one message with a link button.
* **Tap to get the link** — an opener with a **Continue** button, then a second message with the link. More people see the message this way than a link stuffed in the first reply.
* **Follow to get the link** — asks them to follow you first, checks that they did, and only then sends the link.
### Requiring a follow before a message
On any message after the first, you can turn on **Only send this if they follow you**. When someone taps through to that message, Hivra checks with Instagram whether they follow your account:
* If they do, the message sends as normal.
* If they don't, Hivra sends a different message instead — by default, a note that they're not following yet with a button to check again. You can customize both that message's text and its button label. This repeats up to **3 times** per person; after that, taps are still checked silently.
A follow check can't be added to the opening message — the person hasn't had a chance to act yet, so there's nothing to check against.
### Public reply (comment triggers only)
For comment-triggered automations, you can optionally fill in **Also reply publicly**, up to 300 characters. This is posted as a normal public reply under the triggering comment (for example, "Sent you a DM!") in addition to the private flow message, so other people who see the comment thread know you responded.
### What happens if Instagram refuses the buttons
Instagram sometimes won't deliver a button-based message. When that happens, Hivra automatically falls back to sending the same message as plain text, with any link URLs written out and a prompt to reply to continue. A reply from the person then continues the flow to the next step, the same as a button tap would. You don't need to do anything for this — it's shown in the automation's stats as a **fallback**.
## Managing automations
Each automation in the list shows its name, the Instagram account it runs on, a summary of its trigger and match, how many messages it has, and whether it includes a follow check. From here you can:
* **Toggle it on or off** with the switch on the right — a disabled automation stops matching new comments and DMs immediately, without deleting it.
* **Edit** it using the pencil icon, which reopens the same editor pre-filled with its current settings.
* **Delete** it using the trash icon. Hivra asks you to confirm, since deleting removes its stats and stops it from replying right away — though any messages it already sent stay in the recipient's inbox. This can't be undone.
### Funnel stats
Every automation card shows a running summary of its performance:
* How many people it **started** a flow with (first message sent).
* For flows with more than one message, how many **tapped through** to a second message and how many **reached the end** of the flow.
* How many **link taps** it generated, if any of its messages include a link button.
* How many attempts **failed** to send.
* When it last sent a message, and how many times Instagram refused the buttons and Hivra used the text fallback instead.
## Limits
| Limit | Value |
| - | - |
| Messages per automation | 1–5 |
| Buttons per message | Up to 3 |
| Button label length | 20 characters |
| Message text length | 640 characters |
| Public reply length | 300 characters |
| Posts shown per page in the post picker | 24 (4 rows of 6) |
| Private reply window (comment triggers) | 7 days from the comment |
| Not-following prompts per person | Up to 3 per flow |
Automations require a paid Hivra plan, the same as the rest of **Engagement**. On the Free plan, the Engagement section is locked behind an upgrade prompt.
## Troubleshooting
This means Hivra's Instagram connection for that account doesn't currently have the permissions automations need to send DMs. Go to **Integrations**, reconnect the account, and accept the requested permissions — automations on that account resume once it's healthy again.
Hivra validates the automation before saving and shows the first thing left to fix — for example, a missing name, no keyword, no post selected for a "Specific posts" automation, an empty message, a button without a label, a link button missing a full `https://` URL, or a message (other than the last) missing its **Continue** button.
Check that the automation was enabled and already created before they commented or messaged — automations only react to activity from after they're created. For comments, also confirm the comment happened within 7 days and matches your keyword and post selection; Instagram's private-reply window closes after that.
If a message required a follow and the person doesn't follow your account, Hivra sends the "not following yet" message (up to 3 times) instead of continuing — this is expected, not a failure. If a step shows as failed in the automation's stats, open the automation to review its settings, or check that the Instagram connection is still healthy in **Integrations**.
When several of your automations could match the same comment or DM, Hivra only runs the oldest one that matches — it never sends more than one automated reply to the same trigger.
## Related
* [Engagement Inbox](/engagement/overview)
* [How the Engagement inbox is populated](/engagement/inbox-population)
* [Connect Instagram](/integrations/instagram)
* [Hivra Plans and Pricing](/account/plans)
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