DM keyword triggers
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An incoming DM trigger watches your message requests and replies when a message matches a keyword. It turns the question you answer forty times a week — PRICE, SHIP, LINK — into a self-serve answer that arrives while you are asleep. The trigger is part of the same builder as comment and story automations.
Before you start
- An Instagram Business or Creator account connected to the workspace.
- A paid plan. Incoming DM triggers are included on Influencer ($9.99/month or $79/year) and Creator; the free Starter plan does not have them.
- A keyword people will actually send. The word you already see in your inbox every day is the right one.
Create the automation with an Incoming DM trigger
Open /automations/new, name it, and pick Incoming DM as the trigger type. There is no post to point at — the trigger watches messages, not comments — so the post-target options disappear and you go straight to keywords.
Set the keywords and the match mode
Type a keyword and press Enter to add it. Add as many as you like; any of them triggers the automation. Then pick the match mode, which behaves exactly as it does on comments:
- Contains keyword: fires on "price" inside "hey what is your price for a reel?". The default, and usually right.
- Exact match: fires only when the message is the keyword by itself. Right for menu-style keywords you have told people to send, like PRICE or MEDIAKIT.
- Any: skips matching and answers every incoming message. Be certain before choosing this one — your DM inbox contains conversations, not just requests.
Write the DM sequence
Step 2 is the same Actions step as every other automation: the optional opening message with a button, the optional follow gate, and the DM that always sends, with up to three https:// link buttons.
The person has already messaged you, so the opening message earns its place less often here. Sending the answer directly usually reads better than making them tap a button to receive what they just asked for.
Write a few variants of the message. Each person gets one, chosen deterministically, so the same person never sees the wording change between conversations.
Add a follow-up, or skip it
The follow-up delays are the standard set: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 6 hours, or 24 hours. It sends only if the person went quiet after the DM, and it is cancelled the moment they reply.
Keep it at 6 hours or less on this trigger. The reply window Instagram grants closes 24 hours after their message, and a follow-up scheduled at the edge of it can miss.
Save, and test it from a second account
Save, check the automation shows as active on /automations, and send the keyword from a different account. Testing from your own account will not work: the engine skips events generated by the account that owns the automation, so an automation can never answer itself.
Why there is no public reply on this trigger
A DM is already private. The public reply card that comment automations get exists to show the comment thread that the keyword works; there is no thread here, so the card does not appear.
The 24-hour messaging window
Instagram lets a business reply for 24 hours after a person messages it. An incoming DM opens that window by definition, so the automated reply always lands inside it — this rule costs you nothing on the first message.
It starts to matter on follow-ups, which is why the step above says 6 hours: the window is counted from their message, not from your reply.
Keyword triggers versus DM reply by AI
These solve different problems. A keyword trigger sends a message you wrote, when a keyword you chose appears: predictable, on every paid plan. DM reply by AI holds a real conversation from a brief you write once, with no keywords at all, and is Creator-only.
If the inbox question has one answer — a price list, a link, a shipping policy — the keyword trigger is the right tool, and you know exactly what every person received.
Frequently asked questions
Which plans include incoming DM triggers?
Influencer and Creator. On the free Starter plan the trigger is not available — Starter keeps comment-to-DM on reels, which is the free tier’s automation.
Is keyword matching case-sensitive?
No. PRICE, Price, and price all match, in every match mode.
Can one automation watch several keywords?
Yes. Add as many as you want; any of them fires it.
Will it reply in the middle of a real conversation?
It replies whenever an incoming message matches. That is why Contains with a distinctive keyword, or Exact for menu-style keywords, beats Any for almost everyone: choose keywords people send on purpose, not words that appear in ordinary sentences.
Can I use a follow gate on incoming DMs?
Yes, the full DM sequence is available, gate included. Weigh whether you want a gate between a person and the answer they just asked you for.
Does Retrigger work on DM automations?
No. Retrigger replays existing comments on a post, and there is no equivalent list of past DMs to replay. The automation answers messages that arrive after it is switched on.
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