Privately Responding to Comments¶

Article Description: Automatically & manually respond to comments Published: No Suggested: No

Content creation is a nonstop grind—ideation, filming, editing, posting, and promotion take up all your time. And that’s before replying to DMs and comments, which are crucial for conversions.

Messcat makes this easier by automating private replies to comments on posts, Reels, and IG Live. Faster responses will boost engagement, signalling Instagram & Messenger to show your content more.

You can use automated replies to:

• Capture leads with a freebie
• Run giveaways in comments
• Turn comments into sales

Engage your audience effortlessly, automate conversations, and save hours while driving more conversions!

Manual Replies to Comments¶

Before we do automated comment replies, let’s see how comments work in the Messcat inbox & how to respond manually.

1. Connect your Instagram/Messenger channel. You can read this article to see how to connect your channel

   Note: if you have connected your channel prior to 25 Feb 2025, you will need to logout from the channel & connect it again. No contacts/tags/data will be lost by this process

2. Have at least 1 post on your page. Write a comment on any such post.

3. Navigate to the Messcat inbox, you should see the comment show up in the chat of the person who commented

   

4. Press the “reply” button on the comment, type in your reply and press send! This will privately reply and open a private DM chat with them. Public replies on comments are not supported at the moment

   

   

   

Automated Replies¶

Keyword Reply¶

You can use keyword replies the same way as you do to automatically respond to messages. An example below to respond to all messages (including comments) matching the word “nice”

For more details & example, refer to our keyword reply guide here

Triggers¶

Triggers can be used to match advanced conditions & trigger flows based on that.

In the simple example below, we’re responding to customers who commented “Nice” on all our posts with the hashtag “#engagement”. We’re also able to automatically add a tag (”Comment”) to keep track of who commented on our posts.

Different Conditions Available¶

In the Facebook/Instagram Comment trigger, you can setup various conditions such as the comment text, post, post caption, live video status etc.

To access these, first create the Facebook/Instagram Comment trigger and add a condition node to it. In the condition node, when you click “Add Condition”, you’ll see all the properties you can condition a reply on

Checking for Specific Post¶

In this example, we can only trigger a reply on 1 or more selected posts. First, we must select the “post” property, and then click the “Select Post(s)” button.

Upon clicking the button, you’ll see all your posts from your page in a dialog. Now, simply check the ones you want comments to respond to & close the dialog. When you close the dialog, you’ll see the IDs of the posts selected.

Note: this feature is currently only available for Instagram pages on beta.Messcat.tech Messenger pages will be available by Apr 1, 2025, and on app.Messcat.tech

Checking for Live Video¶

In this example, we check if the video is live. We can additionally check if the live video is ongoing or has ended too

Silencing Comments in Inbox¶

If you have a busy or host lots of lives, comments can become intrusive in your inbox. So, to help you have a clear inbox — you can turn off notifications & unread indicator for all or some comments, without affecting comment automations. To achieve this:

1. Navigate to Manage Channels, and open the Messenger/Instagram channel for which you would like to silence comments

2. Scroll down to find the “Silence Comments” setting. There you will have 4 options:

   1. None (default): no comments shall be silenced, and all comments will send a notification & mark the chat unread.
   2. On Ongoing Live Videos: comments on ongoing live videos will be silenced. Comments received after the live video is over will not be silenced
   3. On All Live Videos (Ongoing & Ended): comments on all live videos, that are ongoing & over, will be silenced.
   4. On All Posts: comments on all posts will be silenced — including posts, reels, live videos, etc.

   

Note: silenced comments will be visible in inbox, if you have an existing chat with the commenter. If no chat was present with the commenter when they commented, then the comment will not be accessible in the inbox till you send a reply or they DM you.

Limitations¶

1. Only one reply per comment is permitted by Meta. To send any further messages to the chat, you must wait for the person to respond.
2. Replies must be sent within 7 days of the comment being received. Any reply must quote the original comment to be recognised as a “private reply” and not a DM
3. If the comment is deleted before you send a reply, you will also not be able to send a reply.