Answer comments, story replies and DMs with automations (comment to DM)

An automation answers for you on Instagram. Someone comments on your post, replies to your story, or sends you a DM with one of your keywords, and Planoly sends them a DM. On a post it can also leave a public reply under their comment.

You can set one up from a post in the post builder, or from the Automations page in the planner's main navigation, which lists every automation in your workspace. An automation that answers DMs can only be made on the Automations page.

Before you start

• Instagram only. The Automations row only shows on an Instagram channel in the post builder.
• Paid plan. Automations come with a paid plan. On the free plan, opening Automations from a post or from the main navigation shows an upgrade screen. Only the workspace owner can change the plan. See choose a paid plan.
• Auto-post. The post has to publish through Planoly. With the posting method set to Reminder, the row reads Automations require Auto-post and does not open. Planoly finds the post a comment belongs to by the Instagram id it records when it publishes the post, and a reminder post never gets one.
• A connected Instagram account. Planoly will not turn an automation on without one. With no account it says "Connect an Instagram account with auto-post before adding an automation." An expired connection or one that is not finished connecting gets its own message.

Open Automations

1. Open a post in the post builder and select its Instagram channel.
2. Under Posting method, select the Automations row. It reads Nothing set up yet until the post has one.
3. Select Create automation.

Step 1: Trigger

The first step decides which comments the automation answers.

• Name is for you. It is what the Automations row shows on the post.
• When someone comments on sets where it runs. This post is the post you are on. Every post covers every post on your Instagram account, including posts already live and posts you published without Planoly. Choose posts opens a grid of posts already live on Instagram.
• and the comment has sets which comments count. Any words answers every comment. These words answers a comment that contains one of your keywords. Type a keyword and press Enter or a comma to add it. You can add up to 10.
• Public reply is on from the start, with three replies filled in. Planoly uses them in turn: the first reply sent gets the first one, the next gets the second, and so on. Each one is up to 100 characters. Turn the switch off to send the DM alone.

Keywords ignore case and match anywhere in the comment. link answers "LINK", "link please" and "linked".

Select Next. If a field is missing something, the message shows under it and you stay on this step.

Step 2: Action

The second step is the DM: an opening message, then the messages you add under it.

Opening message

The opening message goes first and on its own: a short text with one button. A new automation starts with it on, reading "Hey! So glad you're here 🤍 Tap below and I'll send the link over." with a Send me the link button. Change both to fit your post. The text is up to 640 characters and the button label up to 20.

When the person taps the button, Planoly sends every message below it. Instagram allows one private reply to a comment until the person answers, and the tap is that answer. Someone who never taps gets only the opening message.

Turn the switch off to skip it. Your words are kept for when you turn it back on. On a post, only the first message below then sends: the editor says so at the top, and the messages after it are marked as not sending. On a story every message sends either way, because the story reply already started the conversation.

Messages

Select Add content to add a message and pick what it is. Messages send in the order listed. Use the arrows on a message to move it up or down, or remove it. An automation holds up to 10 messages.

A button needs a label of up to 20 characters and a full link. The photos, videos and PDFs across all of an automation's messages add up to 5 at most.

Changing a message to another kind after you have written something asks first, because the message you wrote is replaced.

Select Add to this post to finish. The preview beside the form plays the comment, the public reply and the DM. In a narrow window, select the eye icon at the top to see it.

When it starts replying

Saving a new automation turns it on. Saving a paused one leaves it paused.

On a post that is not published yet, the automation waits on the post and is created the next time you save the post. If it cannot be created, Planoly tells you which one and why, and the post saves anyway. It answers comments once Planoly has published the post.

On a post that is already published, the automation is created as soon as you add it.

What the commenter gets

• The DM first. The public reply goes under their comment only after the DM is delivered. If the public reply fails, the DM still stands.
• With the opening message on, the rest of your messages after they tap its button.
• One reply per post. Someone who comments three times gets one DM, even if several automations match.
• Nothing for your own comments, including the public replies Planoly posts for you.

Only one automation answers a comment. When two match, one you chose for this post beats one on Every post, and between two of the same kind the newer one wins. The list warns you when this happens, for example: "Two automations answer BREAD on this post, so only the higher one replies unless you give one a different keyword."

Replies only go out while the workspace is on a paid plan. A comment that arrives while it is not gets no reply, then or later.

Automations on stories

On a story the trigger is a reply to the story. The scope is This story or Every story, there is no public reply, and the button reads Add to this story. A story automation starts once the story is published.

Each story keeps its own automations. Copy existing copies one of your other story automations onto this story. A story offers no Remove from this story.

Automations on DMs

A DM automation answers a direct message to your Instagram account. It runs on the whole account, with no post or story behind it. Only the Automations page makes one: the post builder, on the web and in the mobile app, offers comments and story replies only.

1. On the Automations page, select New automation.
2. Under When someone, open the trigger menu and select Sends you a DM.
3. Add your words under Keywords to watch for. There is no Any words choice, so you need at least one keyword. Without one the editor says "Add at least one keyword".
4. Select Continue and build the DM the same way as for a post: an opening message, then your messages. With the opening message off, every message sends, as on a story.
5. Select Create automation, or Save as paused to keep it off.

There is no scope to choose and no public reply. Keywords match the same way as on comments: case does not matter, and the word can sit anywhere in the message.

What a DM automation answers:

• One answer per person per automation in 24 hours. Someone who sends your keyword five times in a day gets one reply.
• When several DM automations match, the newest one answers.
• A reply to your story goes to your story automations first. If none of them matches, your DM automations get a turn.
• A message with no text, such as a shared post or a photo, gets nothing. Neither does a reply to one particular message in the thread.
• Messages you send yourself never set it off.

On the Automations page, a DM automation's row reads DM and its keywords, with no post or story count.

Manage a post's automations

Each automation on the post is a row in the Automations list. In a wide window the preview sits beside the list, and selecting a row plays it there. Hover a row for the pencil, which opens the editor, and the menu beside it.

• Pause stops the automation on every post it runs on, not only this one. Resume turns it back on.
• Remove from this post takes it off this post and leaves it running on the others. An automation on Every post cannot be removed from one post: pause it or change its scope instead.
• Delete everywhere asks first, then deletes it from every post.
• Add existing, beside New automation, puts an automation you already built on this post.

On the calendar, a post with an automation carries a wand icon. Hover it for Automation running or Automation paused.

To see every automation in your workspace at once, use the Automations page below. Pause and Delete there act on every post too. Remove from this post is only here, in the post builder.

See all your automations

Automations in the planner's main navigation, between Inbox and Campaigns, opens a page with every automation in your workspace, whatever post or story it runs on. The newest come first. Select Load more to see older ones.

The Live, Paused and All tabs each show a count, and the page opens on Live. Each row shows where the automation runs and its results, Sent and Opened. A paused one carries a Paused pill.

• New automation, at the top right, opens the editor over the list. Name it and pick the trigger under When someone: Comments on your post, Replies to your story or Sends you a DM. No post is open here, so there is no This post: the scope reads Every post, Every story, or a count such as 4 posts. A saved automation keeps its trigger. Closing the editor takes you back to the tab you were on.
• Select a row to edit it in the same editor.
• Pause and Resume, in the menu at the end of the row, stop or restart the automation everywhere it runs, and the menu says where.
• Delete asks first, and the confirmation says how far it reaches. It removes the automation everywhere.

There is no Remove from this post on this page. To take an automation off one post and keep it on the others, open that post and use its Automations list, as described in Manage a post's automations above.

With no automations in the workspace yet, the page explains what they do and offers New automation, without tabs.

If Instagram disconnects

In the post builder and on the Automations page, a banner over the list says what is wrong:

• Instagram disconnected — no automation is running means nothing replies until you select Reconnect Instagram. Your automations are kept, but until you reconnect you cannot turn one on, resume a paused one, or add one that is on to a post. On the Automations page, Save as paused still saves a new one.
• An expiry date means the connection still works until then. Select Reconnect before it.
• Allow comments shows when the account was linked without comment permission. Automations on posts cannot see new comments without it.
• Allow direct messages shows when the account was linked without direct message permission. Automations cannot reply without it.
• Connect Instagram shows when the account is set up for reminders only. Automations cannot run on it.

The Allow comments and Allow direct messages buttons send you back through Instagram to grant the permission.

From the post builder, reconnecting saves the post first, then takes you to Instagram. See refresh a channel connection.

If another app answers your DMs

Instagram lets one app send DMs in each conversation. When another app holds some of your account's conversations, Planoly's DMs in them fail. A warning titled "Another app is answering some of @yourhandle's messages" then shows in the post builder's Automations list, on the Automations page and in the editor you open from that page.

To fix it, switch to the Facebook Page linked to your Instagram account and choose Planoly as the default app under Instagram Conversation Routing. Open conversation routing opens that setting in a new tab. A conversation another app used recently can take up to 24 hours to switch. The warning clears once a DM gets through again.

On mobile

The Planoly mobile app has an Automations row in the post builder too, on Instagram posts. It answers comments and story replies. To make a DM automation, use the Automations page on the web. The app warns about missing comment permission and about another app answering your DMs, with the same words as the web.