How to auto-reply to messages on Instagram

A new app makes it easy to manage the messages you receive on Instagram chat. Here's how it works

Instagram is also increasingly a tool for businesses, large and small. Zuckerberg's social network focused on images has now reached a billion users and there are hundreds of thousands of profiles that have millions of followers (real or presumed).

A few hundred very loyal followers are enough, however, to find themselves with the Direct section full of messages to which they must respond. Because responding to messages is important: it strengthens the bond with the fans of our profile and creates community. Not always, however, is there time to do so. Large companies have organized themselves with complex bots, which answer the main questions of customers for them. Those who are "smaller", on the other hand, can resort to specific apps such as AutoResponder, which is basically a programmable bot, still in beta version but already flexible enough and useful to most users.

How AutoResponder works

AutoResponder is an automatic responder for Direct Message on Instagram developed by TK Studio (a very young developer of just 20 years old. The app is available in free and pro version, and unfortunately many of the most interesting features are only paid for. With the basic version, however, we can set the automatic response to Instagram Direct and customize it.

You can either respond to all messages equally or respond to messages from specific profiles. Or that contain specific words. You can automatically reply to both individual contacts and groups, ignore certain messages and schedule messages. With the paid version you can also set up a welcome message, create rules for multiple replies and there is support for Tasker.

There's bots and bots

In recent times the word "bot" on Instagram has taken on a less than positive meaning. The most popular bots, in fact, are those that automate follow/unfollow, likes and comments to bring new followers to the profiles of aspiring influencers. There are also bots that send automatic DMs to new followers, non-followers and groups, basically to advertise the profile or a product. AutoResponder, on the other hand, is (at least at the moment) a "good bot" that just responds to those who are actually looking for us. AutoResponder's activity, because of this, will never be considered spam nor does it violate Instagram's policy.