DM automation

Ask people to comment a word, reply to a story or send you a keyword, and ShortSync sends each of them a DM. Use it to hand out a link, a guide or a discount code, collect emails, and turn comments into conversations. Works on Instagram professional accounts and Facebook Pages.

Make a rule

On the dashboard, click DM automations under your connected accounts, next to Repurpose. Once you have rules, they're listed there with an on/off switch; click one to edit it, or Manage and then New rule to add another. A rule has three parts:

1. When someone comments: choose All posts, or pick One post from your recent posts, and add the keywords people should comment.
2. The DM: add the link you're sending, then choose how each DM is written.
   • Your versions: write the DM, or up to five versions of it. Each person gets one picked at random, so your DMs don't all read the same. Add {username}, {first_name}, {keyword} or {link} and they're filled in for each person. On Instagram {username} is their @username; on Facebook it's their name, and {first_name} their first name (Instagram has no names, so there it's the @username too). Keep a line saying it's an automated message: places like California and Germany require it.
   • AI writes each one: say in a sentence or two what the DM should cover. Each DM greets the person and answers their comment in their language. The AI never adds links or claims you didn't give, and when they ask something you didn't cover, it points to your link instead of guessing. Your link goes under it, and it ends by saying it's an automated message, in their language too. Your Backup message is sent if the AI can't write one, or once the month's 2,000 AI-written DMs are used.
3. Reply to the comment: optional. Turn it on to post a short public reply, like "Sent you a DM!", so people know to check their message requests. Write up to five replies with {username} and {keyword}; each comment gets one of them.

Click Turn on rule. Use the switch to pause a rule at any time. Below your rules, Recent DMs shows the last 50 sends and whether each one went out.

What starts a rule

At the top of step 1, pick what the rule listens to. Keywords work the same way in each, and each person gets a rule's DM once.

• Post comment: a comment on any post, or on one post you pick.
• Story reply: someone replies to one of your stories with a keyword, for "reply GUIDE to this story" stories.
• DM: someone sends you a DM with the keyword, for example "link". DMs that are part of another automation's conversation don't count.
• Live comment: a comment during an Instagram Live. Instagram only allows these DMs while the Live is on.

Facebook Page comments

With a Facebook Page connected, a new rule can be for Instagram or your Facebook Page. Facebook rules answer comments on the Page's posts with a private message in Messenger, with the same versions, AI, buttons, cards, email step, files and public reply. Facebook has no follower check for Pages, so "Ask to follow first" lets everyone through. Pages connected before this feature need to be reconnected once to grant comment access.

Set it up with a post

When you create a post for Instagram, open its Instagram settings and click Set up a DM for comments. Pick the keywords and write the DM the same way. It's saved with the post, scheduled or not, and starts the moment the post goes live, so a "comment GUIDE" post works from its first comment. Editing a scheduled post's settings changes it. After the post is live it shows in your rules like any other, marked Set up with the post. Stories don't get comments, so they don't have it.

Buttons, cards and clicks

When the rule has a link, choose how it's sent under Send the link:

• In the text: the link sits inside the message.
• Button: the message with a button that opens the link. The button text can be up to 20 characters, the message up to 640. Instagram shows buttons in its phone app; on the Instagram website the message shows without the button, so people reading there don't see the link.
• Card: an image card with a title, a subtitle and a button. Wide PNG or JPEG images look best.

If Instagram doesn't accept a button or card in a reply to a comment, the message goes out as text with the link instead, and Recent DMs says so.

With Count clicks on (the default), the link goes through a short shortsync.app/l/ link. Each rule shows how many people opened it, and each version of the DM (and the AI-written ones) shows its own click rate, so you can see which wording works best. Link previews that apps load on their own aren't counted.

Before the link: follow, email, files

Step 3 of a rule, Before the link, can add a short conversation. Instagram allows one DM per comment until the person answers, so with any of these the first DM ends with a Send me the link button. Tapping it (or replying) starts the next step:

• Ask to follow first: ShortSync checks whether they follow you. If not, they get your message with an I followed button. After three tries the link goes out anyway, because Instagram doesn't allow making a follow the price of a reward.
• Ask for their email: they reply with their email, and it's saved under Contacts below your rules, with a CSV download. Say in your message what you'll use it for.
• Files: up to three PNG or JPEG images or PDFs (up to 25 MB), sent right after the link.
• AI answers their replies: for 24 hours after the link, the AI answers what they write back, from what you told it, up to the number of answers you pick. It stops when you reply from the inbox or they ask for a person, and counts toward the monthly AI DMs.

If Instagram doesn't accept the button, the first DM asks them to reply YES (or your own word) instead. New contacts can also go to Zapier, Make, n8n or your own server with the dm_contact.created webhook.

How keywords match

• Upper and lower case don't matter, and only whole words count: link matches "Link please!" and "#link" but not "linked".
• A keyword can be a phrase, like free guide.
• Tagging someone doesn't count: link doesn't match "@link".
• Accents matter: cafe doesn't match "café".
• An emoji keyword matches anywhere in the comment, with any skin tone.
• Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Lao, Khmer and Burmese don't put spaces between words, so keywords in these languages match anywhere in the comment. Use full words to avoid surprises.

What people get

The DM lands in the person's Message requests, labelled as a message about their comment. Each person gets a rule's DM once, however many times they comment, and one comment never sends two DMs. If a comment fits several rules, a rule for that post goes first, then your oldest rule.

Sent DMs show up in your inbox. When someone replies, you can answer them there yourself. Instagram allows no further message until they reply.

Limits

• Instagram allows 750 of these DMs per account per hour. ShortSync sends up to 10 a minute per account, so a busy post can take a while to work through.
• A comment can only be answered for 7 days. DMs still waiting after that are dropped.
• Your own comments and messages never trigger a rule.
• A DM can be up to 1,000 bytes. Emoji and non-Latin letters count as several.
• Each Instagram account can have up to 20 rules, with up to 20 keywords each.

API and MCP

Rules can also be managed from code or an AI assistant, with the same options, limits and plans as the app: trigger (comment, story_reply, dm_keyword or live_comment), messages for up to five versions (or message for one), message_mode ai with an ai_brief, link, and public_reply_enabled with public_replies, delivery (text, button or card) with button_label, card_title and card_subtitle, and track_clicks. Rules include clicked_count, variant_stats and ai_stats. Steps before the link use gate (follow, email or follow_email) with gate_button_label, follow_prompt, email_prompt and delivery_message, and AI answers use followup_enabled and followup_max. Collected emails come from GET /api/v1/comment-dms/contacts or the MCP tool list_dm_contacts. To set one up with a post, pass platform_options.instagram.comment_dm when creating or updating the post (in MCP, platform_settings.comment_dm). A rule starts sending to real people as soon as it's on. Results include disclosure_missing, which is true when a written version doesn't say it's automated.

• Public API: GET and POST /api/v1/comment-dms/rules, GET, PATCH and DELETE /api/v1/comment-dms/rules/:id, and GET /api/v1/comment-dms/posts. Reading needs the inbox:read scope and changing rules needs inbox:write.
• MCP: list_comment_dm_rules, list_comment_dm_posts, create_comment_dm_rule, update_comment_dm_rule and delete_comment_dm_rule.
• Billing: the DM automation add-on can be bought from code too. In the API, GET /api/v1/billing shows whether it's active and POST /api/v1/billing/checkout with add_on: "dm_automation" returns a checkout link (account token, account:write, owners and admins). In MCP, upgrade_plan with add_on: "dm_automation" does the same. On Free, Creator comes with it in the same checkout.

Plans

Comment DMs are included on the Team plan. On the Creator plan they're an add-on for $12€10£10/month or $120€100£100/year, added from Automations. Both include 2,000 AI-written DMs a month. They aren't part of the Free plan. If a plan lapses, rules stop sending until it's back.

If something goes wrong

• Reconnect Instagram: rules need permission to read comments and send messages. If your connection is missing either, DM automations shows a reconnect button.
• A red message on a rule: the latest problem with sending, such as an expired login or a person who has blocked messages. It clears after the next DM goes out.
• Not delivered: Instagram refused the DM, or didn't confirm it. ShortSync never sends an unconfirmed DM again, so nobody gets it twice.

FAQ