Instagram DM

Connect your Instagram Business Account to SendSeven to send and receive Direct Messages. Instagram DM supports text, images, video, buttons, carousel, and reactions.

Prerequisites

• An Instagram Business or Creator account (no Facebook Page required)
• Instagram Login OAuth completed in the SendSeven dashboard
• A SendSeven API token with channels:create scope

Setup

Instagram channels are configured through the SendSeven dashboard using Instagram's own login ("Instagram API with Instagram Login"):

1. Log in to SendSeven
2. Navigate to Settings > Channels
3. Click Connect Instagram
4. Sign in with the Instagram professional account and grant the requested permissions

info

Webhooks are subscribed directly on the Instagram account -- no Facebook Page is involved. SendSeven configures this automatically when the channel is created.

caution

"Allow access to messages" must be enabled in the Instagram app (Settings > Messages and story replies > Connected tools). Without it the channel connects but no webhooks arrive.

Instagram Capabilities

Feature	Supported
Text	Yes
Image	Yes
Video	Yes
Audio	No
Document	No
Buttons	Yes
List messages	No
Carousel	Yes (generic template)
Reactions	Yes
Read receipts	Yes
Comments to private reply	Yes (beta) — text, buttons and quick replies; no images

Comments on your posts

Instagram channels can also receive comments on your posts and reels, and answer the commenter with a one-time private reply. This requires the instagram_business_manage_comments permission, which is granted at connect time — an account connected earlier must be reconnected.

See Comments to Private Replies.

Contact Identifiers

Instagram contacts are stored with two identifiers:

Field	Description
instagram_id	Instagram-scoped ID used for API calls
instagram_username	The @handle used for display purposes

Required Scopes

Scope	Purpose
channels:create	Create an Instagram channel
channels:read	View channel details
messages:create	Send messages through Instagram DM

Send an Instagram DM

curl -X POST "https://api.sendseven.com/api/v1/messages" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer s7_api_a1b2c3d4e5f6789012345678abcdef00" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "contact_id": "contact_ig_789",
    "channel_id": "ch_ig_001",
    "text": "Thanks for your interest! Here is more info about our products.",
    "message_type": "text"
  }'

warning

Instagram has its own messaging window rules. You can respond to a user's message within 24 hours. After that, messaging may be restricted depending on the type of interaction.

Next Steps

• Send Text Messages -- sending messages across channels
• Interactive Messages -- buttons on Instagram
• Facebook Messenger -- related Facebook platform setup
• Comments to Private Replies -- turn public comments into DMs