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Customers who find a business on Instagram ask their questions where they found it: in the DMs and under the posts. Fliok now has an Instagram section of its own, beside your WhatsApp inbox, so the same team can answer both without living in two apps.
Note: Instagram in Fliok is in early access: it is available to early-access workspaces while Meta completes its review of our app. If you would like to try it, write to us.
What the Instagram section does
- A DM inbox. Instagram Direct chats in a shared inbox, kept apart from WhatsApp, with assignment, notes, labels and the AI assistant.
- Comments and mentions. Every comment on your posts, reels and stories, and posts that @mention you, in one list you can work through.
- Posts, reels and stories. Publish now or schedule ahead, and see everything on a calendar.
- Insights. Followers, views, reach, interactions, your top posts, your audience and the best time to post.
- Ads. Boost a post, or run an ad that opens a chat in Instagram Direct.
It is on the Basic plan and above, the same plans as the CRM and automations. See pricing for the plans.
Before you connect
- A WhatsApp number connected to Fliok. Instagram sits beside it, so connect WhatsApp first.
- An Instagram professional account, business or creator, linked to a Facebook Page.
- Access to messages allowed in the Instagram app’s message settings, so connected tools can read and answer DMs.
A workspace has one Instagram account, and an Instagram account can be connected to one workspace.
Connect your account
- 1In Fliok, open Settings, then Integrations, and find Instagram.
- 2Continue with Facebook, and choose your Instagram account and the Facebook Page it is linked to.
- 3Back in Fliok, open the Instagram section in the sidebar.
Answer DMs, with your team and the AI
The Instagram inbox works like the WhatsApp one: assign a chat, add a note or a label, resolve it. Each new person who writes becomes a lead in the CRM, with Instagram as the source.
- What arrives: text, photos, videos, voice notes and files, shared posts and reels, replies to your stories, story mentions and reactions.
- What your team sends: text, or one photo per message (JPEG, PNG or GIF, up to 8 MB). Videos and files can be received but not sent.
- Instagram’s rule: a business can reply for 24 hours after the customer’s last message, and cannot message someone first. Fliok holds back replies once that window has closed.
The AI assistant that answers on WhatsApp can answer Instagram DMs too, from the same business facts and behind the same switches: the workspace AI switch, each chat’s own switch and your AI hours. On Instagram it writes plain text, only inside the 24-hour window, and hands the chat to your team when someone asks for a person. Each reply is paid from the same prepaid AI wallet as a WhatsApp reply (how AI billing works).
Not on Instagram yet: chatbot flows, welcome and away messages, and AI follow-ups. Those run on WhatsApp only.
Reply to comments, by hand or with the AI
The comments page has four views: Needs reply, All, Mentions and Hidden. For each comment you can:
- Reply in public, under the comment.
- Reply by DM, once per comment and within 7 days of it, as Instagram allows. If the person writes back, the chat continues in the Instagram inbox. Mentions can be answered in public only.
- Hide it, or show it again, and delete it, on your own posts.
Agents and above reply and hide; deleting a comment needs an admin or the owner.
AI comment replies are off until an admin switches them on, in AI controls. Once on, the AI answers new top-level comments, once each. With Also send a DM when someone asks about price or details ticked, it keeps the public reply short and sends the details in a private message. It leaves alone your own comments, replies inside a thread, mentions, comments that are only emoji, tags or links, and comments older than six hours, and it skips spam, abuse and complaints. It does not post prices in public unless your instructions allow it. To keep a busy post from filling with identical replies, it sends at most 30 replies an hour for the workspace and 10 an hour on any one post.
Tip: Before switching on comment replies, check the AI’s business facts: what you sell, your prices and the policies people ask about. It answers only from what you give it.
Schedule posts, reels and stories
| Format | What it takes |
|---|---|
| Photo | One photo, with a caption |
| Carousel | 2 to 10 photos or videos, with a caption |
| Reel | One video of 3 seconds to 15 minutes, an optional cover, and whether it shows in your grid |
| Story | One photo, or a video of 3 to 60 seconds; no caption |
Captions take up to 2,200 characters, 30 hashtags and 20 @mentions. Videos are MP4 or MOV, up to 100 MB; photos are converted to JPEG, up to 8 MB.
Publish now, or schedule from a couple of minutes to 75 days ahead, and see what is scheduled and posted on the calendar. Agents can save drafts; an admin or the owner publishes and schedules. If Instagram refuses a post, Fliok tries again, then tells your team.
Not supported yet: alt text, collaborators, location, tagging people or products, and a first comment. A published post cannot be deleted from Fliok; delete it in the Instagram app.
Read insights, then boost what works
Insights cover 7, 28 or 90 days: followers, views, reach, accounts engaged, interactions and profile button taps, with likes, comments, saves and shares, a daily reach chart and your top 10 posts by views. Once the account has 100 followers, you also see your audience by age, gender, country and city, and the hours your followers are online. Over 90 days, reach and accounts engaged are estimates, and are marked as such.
Instagram ads come in two kinds: boost a post, for engagement or traffic to a link, or an ad that opens Instagram Direct, with a greeting and up to three tap-to-ask questions. Every ad is saved paused; an admin publishes it and confirms the daily budget, and Meta reviews it before it runs. Ads are paid from your own Facebook ad account, the one your Click-to-WhatsApp ads use, and the spend never passes through Fliok. Creating ads is in early access too.
Questions people ask
Is it one inbox for WhatsApp and Instagram?
No. Instagram has its own section, so the two channels never mix in one list. The same team works both, with the same roles.
Does the AI cost more on Instagram?
No. Each reply the AI sends, to a DM or a comment, is paid from the same AI wallet at the same rate as a WhatsApp reply.
Can Fliok message people on Instagram first?
No. Instagram lets a business reply to people who wrote to it, for 24 hours after their last message. Ads that open Instagram Direct are the way to start new conversations.
More: Instagram in Fliok, the Instagram inbox, comment replies, post scheduling and insights and ads.
Written by the Fliok team
The team that builds the product. Plain explanations of Meta's rules and of what Fliok does with them.
Try it on your own number
The Free plan connects one WhatsApp number with no card required. Questions first? A person replies within one business day.
