What is it?
The long-awaited ability to manage Instagram direct messages, including the ability to both receive and reply to story mentions, with your customers from within Khoros Marketing and Khoros Care from gated Early Access to a phased General Access! We are currently in Phase 3, meaning all businesses now have access!
Why does this matter?
Instagram is one of the fastest-growing digital channels in the world, and the platform’s 1:1 messaging is no exception. Your brands’ followers expect to speak candidly with you, ask questions, share what they love, and have their issues resolved within the channel of their choice — and with Instagram messaging in Khoros, brands can now do just that through Instagram direct messages.
This is one of the most highly requested features across our customer base, and our team has been advocating on your behalf for access for years. After nearly two years of testing, including Khoros being an alpha/beta testing partner, we are pleased to finally be able to announce that the feature will soon be available to any brand that wants it!
However, an important thing to know about the GA rollout is that Facebook is imposing a phased rollout that is based solely on the number of followers an Instagram handle has. Below are details on when and how this feature will be enabled for Instagram accounts.
What are the phases and criteria?
- Phase 1: Starting on June 2nd, 2021 any Instagram business account (handle) that has between 10,000 and 100,000 followers will be given access to the Messenger API for Instagram
- Phase 2: Starting on July 7th, 2021 any IG business account (handle) with between 1,000 and 100,000 followers will be given access the Messenger API for Instagram
- Phase 3: Starting on August 16th, 2021 all business IG accounts (including those who have more than 100,000 followers) can access the API
Once my account is eligible, how will I get access?
- Khoros will automatically enable Instagram DMs for any eligible business account at the start of each of Facebook’s defined phases.
- Note: You may need to re-authenticate your account in order to see messages flow through if you don’t see them immediately ingested into Khoros. Please contact support@khoros.com fi you need help to reauthenticate.
- Please watch this onboarding video to learn about how to properly set-up Instagram messages to work with your existing workflows: Khoros Marketing and Khoros Care
- Lastly, please go under your Instagram app settings and make sure the toggle to “Allow Access to Messages” under “Connected tool” is turned on. This is required by Facebook in order for Khoros to receive IG messages via the API. You can find instructions on this Khoros Care or Khoros Marketing Atlas post.
If I decide I don’t want to manage IG DMs via Khoros, can I stop IG DMs from being ingested?
- Yes. In the same way that you can toggle “Allow Access to Messages” under “Connected Tool” in the Instagram app, you can toggle to disallow access to Khoros via the API. By doing this, you will still receive Instagram messages natively, but they will not show in Khoros. You can find instructions on how to enable/disable the feature on this Care or Marketing Atlas post.
How do I stay tuned for more updates?
We'll be updating you here with any new information that becomes available to us. See below for some FAQs, and please reach out to your account team or comment below with any questions.
Thank you!
Your Khoros Product + Channel Alliances Teams
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FAQs BELOW
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Q: If my Instagram handle(s) were already approved and launched as part of Early Access, does this affect my handles?
A: No, you’ll retain any existing access to Instagram regardless of handle follower count if you were already activated as part of Early Access.
Q: If my Instagram handle(s) were already approved and launched as part of the Alpha phase, do my brand’s other handles automatically get access to the API?
A: No, in GA access is per handle, not per brand. Regardless of whether or not you were a part of the Alpha phase, each handle must be deemed eligible for GA based on follower count.
Q: If one IG Business Account is eligible, does that mean all of my brand’s handles are approved?
A: While this was how it worked in the alpha phase, this is no longer the case in the GA phase from Facebook. At this time, Facebook is allowing access on a handle-by-handle basis. Until a particular handle falls within the follower count criteria, it will not have access to the API.
Q: What Message types are currently “unsupported”?
A: Facebook does not support certain message types via the API. Our understanding of the unsupported message types as of June 2021 is as follows:
- Customer has "shared" a Profile, IGTV, Reel or Story with you via DM (NOTE: User Story @Mentions are supported and are not included in the explanation here)
- Customer sent has sent a Voice message, Sticker, File, or GIF image (NOTE: shared single images, single videos, and carousel images are supported)
- Group direct messages are not supported
Q: Are Instagram "Message requests" ingested into Khoros as a part of Instagram Messaging?
A: While our platform doesn’t visually distinguish message requests as such, these messages do get ingested into your Instagram messaging workflows within Khoros so that you can take action on them.
