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​Instagram integration

Connecting Instagram

Usedesk's integration with Instagram allows you to process direct messages, comments on posts, and mentions of your account directly in Usedesk.

Important!

To set up integration, you need to have an Instagram business account. If you are converting a regular Instagram profile to a business, keep in mind that it should be linked to a public Facebook page. Learn more about linking accounts in the Instagram Help Center.

If your account purpose is not «business», but «сreator», and you have more than 500 000 followers, this integration won’t work. The «creator» purpose is suitable for accounts with a number of followers from 10 000 to 500 000 – then the integration will work correctly.

In your Instagram profile settings in the «Privacy — Messages» section, the permission must be enabled.


To connect your Instagram business account to Usedesk:

1. Open the «Extensions» section and check if the Instagram Business extension is enabled.


2. Go to the «Channels» section and click «Add Channel»:




3. Click on Instagram:


4. In the window that appears, enter the login and password for the Facebook account that is linked to the Instagram account:


5. If you do not have a business account, the system will warn you. If you have multiple business accounts, Usedesk will ask you to select the ones you want to integrate:



6. Next, the system will ask you to select a Facebook page for integration. Facebook Instagram has a specific page linked to each business account. Choose the one that the instagram account is linked to:



7. Then, you need to review the permissions for Usedesk and click «Finish». We recommend leaving all settings, otherwise the integration may not work correctly.



8. Click «Add» next to the account you are connecting:


All set, the channel is connected!


Channel reconnection

If you need to reconnect a channel, go to the channel’s settings:


Click on «Login by Facebook»:


After authorization, click on the «Update» button:


Channel setting

By default, all settings are enabled in the channel to process comments on posts, mentions, and private messages in Direct:


If you do not need some of the settings (for example, you want to process only messages from Direct without mentions and comments), you can turn them off. Don't forget to click the «Save» button.

Additional settings:

Delay for missed chats — Specify the number of seconds after which a chat from Direct will be considered missed if the agent does not answer the client. The time is counted from the moment the client wrote a message and closed the chat or page until the operator's first response. The system reacts only to the agent's first response in new or reopened chats.

If the value is empty, the system will automatically set the number of seconds to 0, and no chat from Direct will be considered missed.

The agent can continue working with missed chats in the «Tickets» section using the «Missed chats» filter;

Maximum chats per agent — Specify the maximum number of chats that one agent can have. The system will distribute chats evenly among all agents up to the specified number in the setting. When the limit is reached, the rest of the chats will remain unassigned.

In this case, if there is a trigger that includes an assignment action when the limit is reached, the assignment action will not be executed (all other actions for the trigger will be executed).

If the value is empty, the system will automatically set the number of chats to 0, and the distribution of chats will work without restrictions on the number.

Allowed to end only their own chats — the agent will only be able to end chats that are assigned to them.

No messages (h) — If there are no new messages in the channel for the specified number of hours, Usedesk will notify administrators.


Integration options

Handling private messages

Conversations from Direct will come to Usedesk in the Chat section. The character limit for a single post is 485 characters when sent from the Instagram mobile app and 988 when sent using the API. If you send a longer message, it will be divided into two or may not be sent at all, so it is best not to exceed the limit.

This is how the correspondence in Direct integrated into Usedesk looks:


If a client sends an image, audio, or video message to Direct, it will be sent to Usedesk as a link, which will open the file in a new tab.


You can also attach a file to a message. The client will receive it in Direct with a link to view/download.


Processing post comments

Posted comments come to Usedesk in the same way as private messages.

What comments won't come to Usedesk:
  • comments on a video post or reels-post,
  • comments on advertisements.

Along with the comment there will be a picture of the post, which you can download.


Your response to the comment will be displayed below the customer's comment:



You can also reply to a comment in private messages — using the «Reply in Direct messages» button:


You can reply to a comment in Direct within 7 days.

Suppose there is more than one chat in progress from one client (for example, you want to reply to a client on a comment in Direct, but you already had a direct correspondence in another ticket). In that case, Usedesk will warn about this with the notification «Another ticket is open» and will not allow you to send a message:


To view the history of all comments in one thread under a post, click on the eye icon:


Since comments in Usedesk create tickets with a subject «New post comment», it can be used to create a trigger with a condition – «What → Subject → Text equals/inequals/includes/doesn’t include → post comment». This way you can, for example, separate messages from comments and send out autoreplies to messages only. Follow the link, to read more about triggers setting up.

Comment processing pieces of advice:
  • avoid using the same answer for several,
  • don’t use too short replies (one symbol),
  • don’t use replies consisting of emojis only.

Handling Mentions

If your Instagram account is mentioned in the comments, come to Usedesk in the same way as private message:



Your response to comments with a mention will appear below the customer's comment:




If your account is mentioned in the comments of a private profile, information about this will not appear in Usedesk.


Ticket filtering

You can filter queries from your Instagram business account by filtering by channel:


For query processing and statistics, do you need narrower filtering by post types like «Direct», «Post comment», and «Mention»? Then, for each type, you can set up automatic triggers that will assign one of the tags «Direct» / «Comment on the post» / «Mention» depending on the subject of the message. There are only three variations for the Instagram channel, and they are unchanged:

  • all messages from Direct come to Usedesk with the subject «Chat»:

  • all comments on posts come to Usedesk with the subject «Comment on a post»:

  • all mentions of your account in the comments come with the subject «Mention»:


Tags can be named differently, for example, instead of «Direct» you can call it «Chat» / "PM" / etc. Use the names that are convenient for you. The main thing is to use the identical name in the «What» → «Tag» → «Text is not equal» → «Your tag name» and in «To» → «Add tags» → «Your tag name» sections and do not change the rest of the conditions.


Trigger to attach the «Direct» tag


Trigger to attach the «Comment on the post» tag


Trigger to attach the «Mention» tag


An example of a working trigger


Nuances and limitations

  • Links to objects on Instagram save media data — this is a requirement for Instagram.
  • Files come to Usedesk as links that can be viewed in a new tab.
  • The size of the attached image should not exceed 8 MB.
  • If the post is deleted, "Deleted comment" will appear instead.

Also, keep the limitations in mind, which we will also warn you about in the Usedesk interface:

  • Message sending limit: 5 messages per second per business account;
  • Message sending limit: 200 messages per 5 minutes per business account;
  • Restriction on sending messages: a client cannot write more than one message in Direct if they did not initiate the dialogue;
  • Limitation of sending and receiving messages: 300 messages in 5 minutes per business account;
  • The text size should not exceed 1,000 bytes. If the length is exceeded, the message will be split into several smaller messages;
  • The maximum response time for a message is seven days.