> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tied.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Instagram

> Direct Messages from a professional account, landing in the same inbox as everything else you run through Tied.

Someone watches a reel, taps your profile, and sends a DM instead of finding your support email. That message isn't a lesser version of a support ticket — Tied treats it exactly like one, with the same contact record, conversation history and AI agent as any other channel.

<Info>
  **2 billion+ monthly active users.** Instagram Direct is one of the largest inboxes on the internet that
  most support tooling still treats as an afterthought.
</Info>

## What it takes

| Requirement | |
| - | - |
| **Plan** | All plans |
| **Account type** | A professional Instagram account — Business or Creator, not a personal profile |
| **Permissions** | Access to manage messages on that account |
| **Time** | Minutes |

Connecting is an OAuth grant against your Instagram professional account. Once it's authorized, Tied subscribes to three things on your account's behalf — messages, message reactions and "seen" receipts — and nothing else.

<Tip>
  **Tokens refresh on use, provided the inbox stays active.** Instagram access tokens expire; Tied
  refreshes one the next time something reads it, but only when it's within 10 days of expiring and
  at least 24 hours old — there's no scheduled job checking on its own. An inbox that goes quiet for a
  while won't get refreshed in the background, so a genuinely dormant inbox can still turn up with a
  lapsed token. Send it a message, or open it in the dashboard, before that gap gets too long.
</Tip>

## What you can send

Standard DM surfaces: text, images, video, voice notes and Instagram's own reactions — no rich cards, carousels or native pickers the way [Apple Messages](/channels/apple-messages) or [Google RCS](/channels/rcs) support. If a flow needs a genuine multiple-choice UI with a dependable answer back, build it for a channel that has one and let Instagram carry the plain-text version.

<Warning>
  **Meta's 24-hour messaging window applies.** Once a customer's last message is more than 24 hours
  old, Tied disables the reply composer in the dashboard so a fresh human-agent reply can't be typed.
  That block is enforced in the dashboard UI only — there's no server-side block on this channel, so
  anything sent through an automation or a flow outside the composer isn't stopped by Tied itself.
  (Meta's Human Agent tag extends the window to 7 days, but it's an installation-level setting that
  defaults to off and needs Meta's approval to enable — not a per-account toggle.) Resolve inside your
  window, and treat a lapsed thread as a new conversation the next time they write in.
</Warning>

## No channel fee

Instagram carries no carrier cost and no Tied channel fee — you pay for resolutions, not delivery. See [Channel fees](/pricing/channel-fees).

## Next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Facebook Messenger" icon="message-circle" href="/channels/messenger">
    The other Meta inbox — same account family, same connection model.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Channel fees" icon="radio" href="/pricing/channel-fees">
    Why Instagram costs nothing to deliver on, and what does.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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