Instagram Channel

Overview

The Instagram channel brings your Instagram direct messages into WaDesk. Once connected, incoming DMs, story replies, comment-to-DM conversations and reactions land in the Team Inbox right beside your WhatsApp chats, and your agents reply from the same screen. Everything is scoped to your workspace and to the specific Instagram account the message arrived on.

Instagram is a first-class channel, not a read-only feed: you get auto-replies, visual flows, an AI agent, comment automation, and broadcasts to people who already messaged you — all built on the same tools you use for WhatsApp.

Two roles in this guide. Connecting Instagram has a one-time platform-admin part (create a Meta app, get its credentials, pass Meta App Review) and a per-workspace user part (click Connect, log in with Facebook). If you're an end user on a hosted WaDesk, your provider has usually done the admin part already — skip to Connecting Your Account.

How the Channel Works

Instagram messaging runs on Meta's Graph API through the Instagram Messaging product. In practical terms:

• Your Instagram Professional account is linked to a Facebook Page. Meta treats the Page as the container that owns messaging permissions.
• When someone DMs you, Meta sends a webhook to WaDesk. WaDesk stores the message, creates/updates the contact and conversation, and shows it in the inbox.
• When you reply, WaDesk calls the Graph API Send API to deliver the message from your account.
• Conversations are keyed per Instagram account, so a multi-brand workspace never mixes up which account a chat belongs to.

Because it's the official API, the same policy rules apply as anywhere on Instagram — most importantly the 24-hour messaging window and the ban on cold-DMing strangers (see API Limits & Messaging Rules).

Requirements

Platform Admin: Create the Meta App & Get Credentials

This is a one-time setup done by whoever runs the WaDesk platform. You'll end with an App ID and App Secret to paste into WaDesk's admin settings.

1. Open the Meta Developer portal. Go to developers.facebook.com, log in, and open My Apps.
2. Create an app. Click Create App, choose the Business type, name it, and create it. This gives you an app dashboard.
3. Add the Instagram product. On the app dashboard, add Instagram (Instagram Graph API / Instagram Messaging) and, if prompted, Facebook Login for Business — the login flow WaDesk uses.
4. Get the App ID & App Secret. Under App settings → Basic, copy the App ID and reveal the App Secret. Treat the secret like a password.
5. Set the OAuth redirect URI. In the Facebook Login settings, add WaDesk's Instagram callback URL (shown in WaDesk Admin → Settings → Instagram) as a Valid OAuth Redirect URI. It must be HTTPS and match exactly.
6. Configure Webhooks. Add the Instagram webhook, paste WaDesk's webhook callback URL and the verify token (both shown in WaDesk admin), and subscribe to the messages, messaging_postbacks, message_reactions and comments fields.
7. Enter settings in WaDesk. Instagram has its own admin page — Admin → Settings → Instagram. Fill the fields — instagram_app_id, instagram_app_secret, an optional instagram_config_id, the instagram_webhook_verify_token and instagram_graph_version — then enable and save.

You can reuse the WhatsApp app. By default Instagram reuses your existing WhatsApp Cloud API Meta app's App ID/Secret, so you often don't need separate Instagram keys at all. You only need a dedicated Instagram App ID/Secret if you use the standalone Instagram-Login path instead of Facebook Login.

App Review is required for other people's accounts. While your app is in Development mode it can only connect Instagram accounts whose users are added as testers/admins on the app. To let any customer connect their own account, submit the app for App Review and request these permissions, with a screencast of the connect-and-reply flow: instagram_basic, instagram_manage_messages, pages_show_list, pages_manage_metadata, and business_management. Approval typically takes a few days; until then, test with your own accounts.

User: Connecting Your Account

Once the app is configured, each workspace connects its own account in a few clicks:

1. Prepare the account — Professional account, linked to its Facebook Page (see Requirements).
2. Open the Channels page (the Devices screen in the menu) and click Add device → Instagram → Connect Instagram.
3. Log in with Facebook as the Page admin in the popup that opens.
4. Grant permissions. Approve access to your Page(s) and Instagram messaging when Meta asks. Approve all requested items — unticking one can break messaging.
5. Pick the account. If you manage several, choose the Instagram account to connect. WaDesk stores its identity and a long-lived token, and subscribes it to the message webhooks.
6. Done. The account shows Connected. Your existing conversations backfill so contacts are usable immediately, and new DMs start arriving in the inbox.

Mobile popup note: the Facebook login opens as a popup. If it's blocked, allow popups for your WaDesk domain and retry. On mobile the flow may switch apps and return — that's expected.

API Limits & Messaging Rules

These are Meta's rules, enforced by the API — WaDesk follows them so your account stays healthy:

Using the Inbox

Instagram threads appear in the Team Inbox with an Instagram badge and the sender's IG username and avatar. Specifics:

• Sender identity. Each thread shows which of your connected Instagram accounts it belongs to.
• Media & reactions. Photos, reels, shared posts, voice notes and emoji reactions render inline. You can react and reply with media.
• Story replies & ice-breakers. When a customer replies to your story or taps an ice-breaker, the context appears above their message.
• One thread per person. All of a person's messages to one account stay in a single conversation, so history is never fragmented.
• 24-hour indicator. The composer reflects whether the window is open, matching WhatsApp's behaviour.

Auto-Reply, Flows, AI & Comments

All of WaDesk's conversation automation works on Instagram — you just pick Instagram as the channel:

• Auto-reply. In Auto Reply, create Welcome / Away / Out-of-hours / Keyword rules and scope them to your Instagram account. They fire on inbound DMs and reply on Instagram. (Instagram auto-reply is delivered by polling as well as webhooks, so it keeps working even if a webhook is briefly delayed.)
• Flows. In the Flow Builder, set the Trigger node's channel to Instagram. Buttons and quick replies render as tap options, and media, question and condition steps all run on Instagram.
• AI agent. Assign an AI agent per Instagram account to answer DMs in your brand voice, grounded in your knowledge base, with automatic hand-off to a human.
• Comment automation. Auto-reply to comments on a post or reel and invite the commenter into a private DM, then continue in a flow or with an agent.

Instagram Broadcasts

Open More → Broadcasts and switch the channel to Instagram (or open the composer with Instagram selected). The composer adapts:

1. Pick the Instagram account to send from — the account picker works like the WhatsApp number picker.
2. Choose recipients. The list is built from people who already have a DM thread with that account — the same contacts you see in the inbox. Cold-DMing strangers isn't possible.
3. Write the message. Choose Text or a template, and watch the live preview render as an Instagram DM.
4. Send. Each recipient is messaged from the selected account and the send is mirrored into the inbox thread.

Stay inside the window. Instagram permits business messages only to people who messaged you, generally within 24 hours. WaDesk enforces this so a broadcast never risks the account — but keep broadcasts helpful and relevant to protect your standing.

Troubleshooting

Related: the one-time Meta app steps are shared with Meta Ads — see Create a Facebook App. Engine details: Connecting a Channel.