The DM comes in. The conversation starts.

You connect your Instagram Business or Creator account to Auto-Respond through Meta's official Instagram messaging API (the same API family that powers Messenger). After that, every DM that lands in your inbox gets an instant AI reply that reads what the person actually wrote, answers their question, asks a couple of qualifying questions, and offers a booking. There is no separate app for your customer to install and nothing for you to babysit. Setup takes under 2 minutes through the Facebook Business connection, and the next DM after you flip it on gets an instant reply.

Yes, and this is where quiet leads get recovered. Plenty of people send one DM, get a reply, then go quiet because they got busy, not because they lost interest. Auto-Respond runs an automated follow-up sequence on those threads: a nudge a few hours later, another the next day, a final check a couple of days after that, each one written in context rather than a copy-pasted "just checking in." You set the cadence and the stop conditions, and the AI pauses the moment the lead replies or books. You are not manually scrolling back through old DMs trying to remember who ghosted you.

Yes. Auto-Respond uses Meta's official Instagram messaging API, which is approved for Instagram Business and Creator accounts. It is the same sanctioned surface that large customer-service platforms use, so replies are logged natively in your Instagram inbox and there is no risk of the account restrictions that come with unofficial automation bots. You need an Instagram Business or Creator account linked to a Facebook Page, both of which are free to set up.

The first reply lands in under 2 seconds from the moment the message arrives. That speed matters more on Instagram than almost anywhere else, because the person is still inside the app, still on your profile, and one tap away from messaging three competitors. A reply that arrives while they are still scrolling converts at a far higher rate than one that shows up two hours later when they have moved on.

Direct DMs, Story replies, Reel replies, and Instagram Lead Ad form submissions all land in the same inbox and all get an instant response. Organic DMs get a qualifying conversation, since you know nothing about the project yet. Lead Ad submissions get an immediate follow-up that already references the details the person filled in. Comment moderation is a separate thing and is not part of this; this covers the inbox and DM side.

Both. Instagram DMs and Facebook Messenger run on the same Meta messaging plumbing, so one connection covers your Instagram inbox, your Messenger inbox, and Facebook or Instagram Lead Ad submissions. You manage every Meta conversation from a single dashboard instead of bouncing between two apps. If Facebook is your bigger channel, the dedicated Facebook auto responder page walks through the Messenger side in more detail.

Instagram is $49/month per connected source or location. Facebook Messenger is a separate $49/month source even when both are authorized through the same Meta connection. There are no per-message fees or fixed-term contract. The optional AI voice agent, if you want to follow up high-value Instagram leads by phone, is $10/month per number plus $1/minute. Trial eligibility is shown before activation.

Most do not, because the reply is written to their specific message rather than pulled from a canned template. The AI reads "do you work in Tampa and what would a full repaint run" and answers that exact question with your real service area and a real price range. It does not open with a generic "thanks for reaching out, someone will be with you shortly." If a thread gets complicated or high-value, it hands off to you with the full conversation attached so you never re-ask what they already told the bot.

It escalates instead of guessing. You set the escalation rules, such as explicit requests for a human, job values above a threshold, or scope the AI cannot scope cleanly, and the conversation routes to your phone with the full DM history attached. The AI grounds every answer in the knowledge base you give it, so it quotes your pricing and service area rather than inventing numbers, and it punts to you the moment it hits the edge of what it knows.

Most businesses are fully set up in under 2 minutes, and the Instagram connection is the bulk of it. Link your Instagram Business account through the Facebook Business connection, paste in your services, pricing ranges, and service area, set the follow-up cadence, and turn it on. The next DM that lands after that is handled automatically.