Inbox and contacts: answer DMs, mentions and comments
Read and answer the messages that come to your connected accounts in one place, or let your agent answer them. Contacts keeps the people who wrote to you, with tags.
Steps
Step 1 Know what lands in the inbox
Open Inbox in the dashboard sidebar. It holds: Direct messages on Instagram and Facebook, mentions on Threads. Naver Blog comment threads that a comment automation picked up show up too.
Every person who writes becomes a contact. With more than one workspace, a workspace picker at the top narrows the list.
Step 2 Find a conversation
The list has two tabs, Open and Closed. Narrow it by kind (DMs, Mentions, Comments), check Unread, or type in Search to match a name or the last message.
Messages arrive from the moment the account is connected. To bring in conversations from before that, pick an account under Import at the top (Import recent conversations).
Step 3 Reply from the inbox
Open a conversation, write in the box at the bottom and press Send. A DM conversation shows a badge with the messaging window: a DM can go out only while the window is open, and the window opens when the person messages the account and closes a day after their last message. A comment does not open it. When the badge says the window is closed, the reply box is locked until they write again.
In a mention or comment conversation the badge reads Replies go out as a public reply: your answer appears in public under their post or comment.
When you reply by hand, automations stop answering that conversation for a while and the thread shows Automations paused while you reply. A reply that an AI step wrote for approval shows as AI draft waiting for your approval; press Send or Discard.
Press Close when you are done. The conversation moves to Closed, and Reopen brings it back. The star marks the ones to come back to.
Step 4 Or ask your agent to answer
Your agent reads the same inbox. Ask it, for example: "Show me unread DMs and draft a reply to each." It lists conversations with list_conversations, opens one with read_conversation, and answers with send_dm, which posts a public reply on a mention.
The same rules apply to the agent: a DM outside the window comes back as window_closed. Ask the agent to show you each reply before it sends, because the message goes out from your account.
Step 5 Keep track of people in Contacts
Open Contacts. People who messaged or commented. Follow status is known only for people who have messaged the account, on Instagram. It is not a follower list: no channel gives one out.
Search by name, or type a tag in Tag to filter. Click a row to open the contact. There you add tags with Add tag, and Re-read profile reads their profile again from the channel. Export CSV downloads the rows you are looking at.
To remove a person, press Delete customer data and confirm. This deletes their conversations, messages, tags and profile in uplika only. Nothing changes on the channel, and it cannot be undone.
Step 6 When messages do not show up
Look at the account on Connections. An account connected without DM permissions shows Reconnect for DM access, and one missing the mentions permission shows Reconnect for new permissions. This connection was made without DM permissions. Reconnect it to use DMs, automations and the inbox. Publishing keeps working either way.
Blocked sends at the top of the inbox lists messages an automation did not send, with the reason.
Reasons in Blocked sends
| Reason | What it means |
|---|---|
| 24-hour window closed | The person has not messaged the account recently, so the DM could not go out. |
| Opted out | The person opted out, so uplika sends them nothing. |
| Too many messages | An automation sent this person too many messages in a short time. |
| Private reply expired | The comment was too old for a private reply. |
If you get stuck
Try it on your own accounts
Connect a channel, add uplika to the agent you already use, and ask it to post. No card to start.
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