This article describes how you can add the Instagram Direct social messaging channel and configure it to meet your needs.
This article contains the following sections:
You can also watch the following video:
Instagram setup flow (1:29)
Adding the Instagram channel
The first step is to add Instagram Direct to your channels.
To add an Instagram Direct channel
- In the Instagram app, go toSettings>Messages and story replies>Message controls>Connected tools>Allow access to messages.
- UnderConnected Tools, toggle onAllow access to messages.Note:This step must be performed in the Instagram mobile app. It cannot be performed via Instagram Web.
- Open your Zendesk admin account.
- InAdmin Center, click
Channelsin the sidebar, then selectMessaging and social > Messaging. - ClickAdd channeland selectInstagram Directfrom the drop-down.
- ClickContinue with Instagram Directto open the Instagram set-up flow.The set-up flow will ask you for the following information. Follow the instructions in the flow to add this information.
Action Description Authenticate to your Facebook profile This is the admin profile linked to your company's Facebook Business Manager. You canContinuewith the existing profile or sign in to another account. Provide permission to share your Instagram Account with Zendesk. Zendesk needs this permission to connect your Instagram Professional Business Account to the Agent Workspace. Provide permission to share your Facebook Page(s) with Zendesk. Zendesk needs this permission to connect your Instagram Professional Business Account to the Agent Workspace. We recommend that you select all pages. Accept the selected permissions These permissions are needed to send and receive messages from Agent Workspace. - When you've finished the set-up flow, clickDone.
- Select the Instagram channel you wish to connect from the drop-down, then clickNext.
- Assign a name to the new Instagram channel you are connecting, then clickAdd channel. Note that agents need to add comments to an Instagram message from within the Zendesk Agent Workspace.Note:Replies made directly in Instagram will not add a comment to the related ticket.
与Facebook Messenger, Instagram直接允许s a business only seven days to respond to the end user before the messaging window closes. To prevent messages from being sent but not delivered, the composer will be blocked once the messaging window is closed. The only way to re-open is if the end user sends a new message.
Additionally, Instagram requires that you respond to an end user’s initial message within 24 hours, either by agent engagement, or with an automated message using theauto-responderorchatbot.
Configuring the Instagram channel
Once you’ve added Instagram to your social messaging channels, you can configure how it appears and functions.
To configure the Instagram channel
- InAdmin Center, clickChannelsin the sidebar, then selectMessaging and social > Messaging.
- Click the Instagram channel you want to configure to open itsEditpage.
- Update the information in theBasics,Auto-responder, andMessage Us buttontabs, as described in the sections below.
- ClickSaveafter updating the information in each tab.
The Basics tab
The Basics tab is populated with the channel and Instagram profile names.
To edit the Basics tab
- Click in each text box to edit these names.
- ClickSavewhen you’re done.
If you have multiple brands attached to your Zendesk account, you’ll also have a dropdown menu to select a brand to connect to the Instagram channel. You can only attach one brand to the channel. If your account has only one brand, this option does not appear under the Basics tab.
The Auto-responder tab
The auto-responder sends messages automatically to an end user when you receive their messages. SeeSending automatic responses to social messagesfor more detailed information on using and configuring the auto-responder.
If you choose to use the auto-responder- ClickEnable auto-responder, then enter a message for your customers.
- ClickSavewhen you’re done.
The Message Us button tab
Adding a Message Us button to your website, mobile app, or help center allows customers to discover and connect to your Instagram account, where they can request and receive support via Instagram Direct.
If you choose to add a Message Us button you’ll need to configure the following elements, then add the HTML code snippet to each page on the website or mobile app where it should be displayed.
Configurable options
As you make the selections below, a preview of the button is updated on the right side of the channel page.
- Color: Choose a gradient style for the button,Dark grayorWhite.
大小: SelectCompactorRegular.
Corner radius: This number determines how rounded the button’s corners are. Enter a number from 0 (right angle) to 20 (near quarter-round).
Label: Enter the text you want displayed on the button.
Width: Enter the length you want your button (up to 400 pixels).
Adding the Message Us button
After you’ve configured the options above, you can add the code snippet to your website, mobile app, or help center.
To add the Message Us button to a website or mobile app
- Copy the code snippet to your clipboard.
- 将代码粘贴到每个页面的HTMLshould include the button before the closing tag.
To add the Message Us button to your Zendesk Guide help center
- In Guide, clickGuide Adminat the top of the page, then theCustomize designicon (
) on the sidebar. - On the theme you want to edit, clickCustomize, then clickEdit Code.
- In theTemplatessection, click the template you want to modify, and add the snippet before the template’s closing tag.
- ClickSave.
84 Comments
Hi Amie, I have the same question as Nathan that I don't believe was answered. The Instagram inbox has 3 different 'sections' to the Inbox: Primary, General and Requests. All new messages land in the Request folder, but we clearly don't want to reply to every message as there is a lot of nonsense that comes through. We manually filter and move messages from the Requests folder to the General or Primary folders.
Which of these inbox 'sections' does the Zendesk integration link to? If it's the Request folder, that may be sub-optimal for us. It would be great to get clarity on this.
hey@..., I'm pretty sure it links to the primary feed only. However, we'll need someone from Zendesk to confirm this for us.
Thanks@...! Will wait for ZD's reply
Is there a way to prevent these DMs from coming in as live chats? We'd prefer to limit the "chat" functionality in zendesk exclusively to the live chat widget on our website. Otherwise, we have one green button that flashes at the top of our screen, but no way of knowing where it's coming from without accepting the ticket.
If that's not possible, is it possible for certain chat channels to only route to agents in certain groups?
Hello, Will!
Checked this feature out with the Social Messaging team and sadly, there's no way to prevent IG messages from coming in as chats at the moment. We're still working on improving lots of new features and once we get this finalized, we'll put a note up and let you know.
Thanks!
Clicking on "Channels" just opens and closes the menu on the left hand side. Where is the add channel ui?
HI!
That's the only place to add channels from in the Admin Center. Could you try refreshing or on a different browser?
Thanks!
Ahn L. | Customer Support Advocate
We are also trying to add IG to our Zendesk account and do not want to migrate over to the agent workspace if it can be avoided as it seems that some portions of how we use Zendesk may not function properly once agent workspace is enabled.
Would really like the option to integrate IG so that it behaves the same way as FB messages. Please pass this to the devs - IG is not the same as live chat - people come and go and aren't waiting for a reply.
@...- this is how ours behaves as well. Most likely agent workspace isn't enabled on your account. IG apparently can't be added unless you use agent workspace.
@...@...
Did you get an answer to this question?
I connected Instagram to Zendesk, but messages I moved from requests to primary don't show up in Zendesk. Is there a delay on the integration?
@...- Hey! In the end, my company decided not to integrate Instagram with Zendesk because it wasn't fit for purpose. Although I don't have any experience with the exact issue you mentioned, I thought I'd share some information about the integration for the whole community to see. When I asked Zendesk about the Instagram integration and how it works with Instagrams 'folders', I was told:
"The default behavior is thatall[instagram] inboxes should come into Zendesk but there is no distinction in the messages when they do come in. The way to organize the messages is by manually moving them." (manually moving them in this case means = moving them from one view to another in Zendesk,notin the Instagram app...as you'll see below)
"Sorting/replies in the Instagram inbox willnotbe communicated/made available to Zendesk. If your team replies to a DM from the Instagram app itself, that reply willnotshow in the Zendesk ticket thread, and vice versa."
@...
Thanks, that's super helpful information.
I just found out by testing that it indeed doesn't sort the inboxes and everything comes into Zendesk.
Hello, I have an Enterprise account and checked both in Safari and Chrome yet while selecting Within Messaging and Social, and the page is blank. What am I missing?
HiWendy Jordan,
Thanks for your message! Sorry to hear that you've run into this issue. I'm unable to view your screenshot for some reason. Is the issue still occurring for you? If so, please let me know and I'll create a ticket so we can investigate further.
Thanks,
- Miranda.
Hi,
We've been very interested in getting Instagram DM's into Zendesk for a long time now.
Like so many others here, we would prefer them to be created as a Facebook Messenger Ticket instead of a chat.
My question here is: What happens if an instagram Direct Message is received once no agents are online? Currently none can chat with us, when agents are offline, only leave a message. How does this work with this integration?
HelloSNT Aps,
DMs that are received when there are no agents available and/or online will still create tickets that can be followed up on once someone is available. It is important to note that Instagram expects businesses to send a first response within 24 hours to ensure a good experience. Additionally, Instagram imposes a hard end to a conversation 7 days after a customer's last reply.
With Instagram Direct like all of our social channel integrations you can choose to use our auto-responder to help set customer expectations and respect Instagram's ask for a reply in the first 24 hours. Having a message indicating the times in which agents are available will also help a customer to understand that they may not receive a reply from an agent right away.
Lastly, we also have bot partners that can be used with our social channels to help triage tickets and potentially get a customer the answer(s) they were looking for even when no agents are available.
We have more information in the following guide:Getting started with social messaging
Hello!
I don't have any option to add Instagram to my account. Can you please help?
Thanks!
Hi Luisa,
I've created a ticket #9804855 so I can assist you further with your concern. Thank you!
This request was closed and merged into request#9804855"Request created from: Enabling a...".
Good Afternoon.
I am wondering how I would go about creating a seperate view for these Instagram messages/chats so that we can have better visibility of them?
Thanks for reaching out to Zendesk Support, my name is Russell and I will be assisting around your post, I hope you're doing well!
我知道你想创建一个separate view to track Instagram messages on your Zendesk account, is that correct? If so, you could set a View's conditions along something like this:
Keep in mind this is an example and the bare minimum where it will look for tickets under that particular channel of Instagram Direct and specifically for Open and New tickets. This can be something where you will be able to tweak with your business' workflow. For more information around building Views and their conditions, please see our articlehere. Let us know if you have any other questions!
Hi,
I'm trying Instagram Direct, but when i send the {{ticket.comments}} to my API using trigger, the text that i can see is "Conversation with {{name}}". Not the text that user send from instagram. Can i retrieve that user chat?
Thanks.
@...- is there a way to stop the Instagram DMs from coming through the exact same pathway as a live chat on our website? We have separate agents for web and social interactions, so it creates a significant problem when they both simply show up as "1 message" at the top of the screen. If zendesk treated these DMs more like a facebook message that we can separate into its own queue would be very helpful. For example, being able to assign certain skills to certain channels/agents would be a great step in this direction for messaging.
Stephanie LangloisIt's so interesting to me that you mention that support tickets CAN be created when no chat agents are online.(From your post 3 months ago, "DMs that are received when there are no agents available and/or online will still create tickets that can be followed up on once someone is available.")Since all along it's been explained that Insta DMs can only come in as chats. Our business is not and will not use this integration until Insta DMs can come in as regular support tickets. And scrolling through all of these comments, that seems to be the overwhelming ask of your customer base. Anything on the product roadmap to address this huge feature gap?
Agree withLaura MateriThe IG integration is not business friendly and leaves a lot of gaps, particularly if you would have some IG messages replied to through agents but would still have others replied to directly through the app. The inability to see messages that have been sent outside of ZD or received outside of business hours makes the integration relatively useless. Not to mention the necessity of changing the agent environment in order to add it in the first place. I would like to see the IG add-on function like Facebook Messenger integration. At this point the Facebook Business Page manager - despite having limitations, is more useful for replying to IG messages.
Hello,
I would like your help to find out why I don't have Zendesk Messagin enabled
Regards,
Luisa Cunha
Hello. I have enabled IG Direct for Zendesk, and the messages are coming in as support tickets. I am assuming I need to set up some automation to go into a specific view. Also, is there a reason why Instagram doesn't show up under channels like Twitter and Facebook do? Thank you!
Hello
I am trying to add the Instagram Direct but running into an issue. After successful logging into Facebook, I am getting to step 2, but I am not getting anything into the drop down box for selecting profile. And so I cannot move forward since I cannot select the profile. Any ideas?
Thanks.
Thank you for reaching out to Zendesk Support.
Yes, you need to setup a trigger that will direct all incoming Instagram messages into a specific view.
Once you have linked an Instagram account, it will be added to the conditions. Once you have selected the condition, "Channel is" then you will be given several options and along with that is called, Instagram Direct.
Thank you and have a wonderful day ahead!
Kind regards,
Pleasesign into leave a comment.