> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.minidesk.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Instagram > Direct messages to your Instagram account become conversations in your inbox. Customers send your Instagram account a direct message; it becomes a conversation in your inbox; your reply goes back to them as a direct message. They never leave Instagram, and you never leave your inbox. ## What you need The login for the Instagram account you want to connect, and two minutes. Nothing to host, nothing to install, and no code. Only an Owner can connect it. ## Set it up In the dashboard, go to **Channels** and pick **Instagram**. Meta owns Instagram, so the login happens on Meta's own screen. Log in and pick the account. Meta sends you back to the dashboard, which says **Instagram is connected**. If you cancelled on Meta's screen, nothing changed. Send the account a direct message from a different Instagram account to confirm it works. It should appear in your inbox within a few seconds. ## One account per workspace A workspace connects one Instagram account. To switch to another, disconnect the first. ## Only messages from now on Direct messages sent after you connect become conversations. Your existing Instagram inbox is not imported, so a customer you were already talking to starts a new conversation the next time they write. ## What arrives Direct messages, and what comes with them. Photos and PDFs are stored alongside the message, up to 10MB each, the same as everywhere else in the product. Videos, voice messages and other files are not stored. An internal note names each one, so your team knows something was sent and can look in the Instagram app. We stop at images and PDFs because almost every support attachment is a screenshot, and every file type we accept is one we have to store and serve safely. A message with no words, like a photo on its own, still becomes a conversation. It gets a short placeholder line, like "(sent a photo)", so the thread is not blank. Replies to your story and mentions of you in someone's story arrive the same way, as "(replied to your story)" and "(mentioned you in their story)". Comments on your posts do not arrive. Only direct messages do. ## Which conversation a message joins A chat has no threads, just one continuous stream. So a new message joins the customer's open conversation if they have one. If every conversation with them is resolved or closed, it starts a new one. That means a customer coming back a month later opens a fresh conversation rather than reviving a finished one. ## Their name and picture The customer's Instagram name is used as their name in your inbox. Where they have a profile picture, we fetch it whenever they start a new conversation and show it beside their name. People with no picture keep the initials circle. The image is stored privately and shown through a short-lived signed link, not a public URL. Erasing a customer deletes the file along with the record. ## Replying Your reply goes back as a direct message. Three things are worth knowing. **Meta only lets businesses reply within 24 hours of the customer's last message.** A reply written by a person gets 7 days instead. The AI does not get the extra time, and does not need it: it answers within minutes. Once the window has closed, nothing reaches the customer until they write again. **Long replies are split.** Instagram caps a message at 1000 characters, so a longer reply arrives as several messages, broken at a line or a space. **Only the text goes.** Files you attach to a reply stay on the conversation in miniDesk. If the customer needs one, send a link. ### A reply that did not arrive says so If Instagram refuses a reply, you get an internal note on the conversation saying it was not delivered, and why: the 24 hours have passed, the account needs reconnecting, or Instagram did not accept it. The note is there so nobody on your team believes the customer has an answer they never got. ## Replies sent from the Instagram app You can still answer from the Instagram app on your phone. That reply is added to the conversation, labelled **Instagram app**, so the thread in your inbox stays complete. It is not sent a second time. A conversation you start yourself from the app does not become a ticket. It is not a support request. ## Automated replies If you have AI auto-reply switched on, Instagram follows it like any other channel. Once the account is connected, the **Reply automatically on** list under **AI Agent → Settings** gets an **Instagram** switch. It starts on, so you can turn it off for Instagram and leave it on for email, or the reverse. ## The confirmation message When the AI is not answering a new conversation, the customer hears nothing until someone on your team replies. Switch on **Confirmation message** in **Channels → Instagram** to send them one line straight away, so they know it arrived. It goes once, when a conversation starts, and only if the AI did not reply on its own. Leave the text as it is to send ours: "Thanks for your message! We'll get back to you as soon as we can." Or write your own, up to 500 characters. Clear the field to go back to ours. It is off until you switch it on. Your team does not see it as a message in the thread. It is listed as **Confirmation sent** in the conversation's history, and the conversation still counts as unanswered. If **Instant reply** is also on in Meta Business Suite, customers get both. Switch one of them off. ## On the free plan On the free plan, the first message we send in each conversation ends with the line "Sent from miniDesk.ai". That is the confirmation message if one went out, or the first reply if not. Paid plans never add it, and upgrading removes it straight away. ## The states The Channels screen shows which one you are in: | State | Meaning | | - | - | | **Waiting for the first message** | Connected, but nobody has messaged the account since | | **Live** | At least one message has arrived and become a conversation | | **Paused** | You switched it off | | **Reconnect needed** | Meta stopped sending this account's messages to us | **Reconnect needed** usually means the account's password changed or its access was removed on Meta's side. Open **Channels → Instagram** and press **Reconnect** to log in on Meta again. ## Pausing and disconnecting **Pausing** is the **Accept new conversations** switch. While it is off, nothing customers send is picked up, not even replies to conversations already in your inbox, and nothing is kept for later. The connection is kept, so switching it back on picks up from the next message. **Disconnecting** removes the connection and withdraws the access Meta gave us. The Instagram account itself is untouched and stays exactly as it is. Conversations that already arrived stay in your inbox either way. They are your support history, not part of the connection. ## Through the API Conversations that start on Instagram have `source: "instagram"` in [the REST API](/api-reference/introduction). Their requesters are never verified: Meta vouches that an Instagram account exists, not that it belongs to one of your customers. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.