You can add your business Instagram account to Zendesk so incoming Instagram direct messages, story replies, and story mentions become tickets. Tickets are not created for comments or replies on posts, reels, or other Instagram content.
Your agents can see and respond to these tickets in Zendesk like any other ticket. Agents must reply directly to the ticket in Support for replies to appear on both Zendesk and Instagram. Agent replies made directly within Instagram are not added to the Support ticket. See Receiving and sending messages in the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
This article contains the following topics:
Adding the Instagram Direct channel
The first step is to add Instagram Direct to your channels. Read on or watch the video below to learn more about the setup process.
Instagram setup flow (1:29)
To add an Instagram Direct channel
- In the Instagram app, go to Settings > Messages and story replies > Message controls > Connected tools > Allow access to messages.
- Under Connected Tools, toggle on Allow access to
messages.Note: This step must be performed in the Instagram mobile app. It cannot be performed via Instagram Web.
- Open your Zendesk admin account.
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > Messaging.
- Click Add channel and select Instagram Direct from the drop-down.
- Click Continue with Instagram to open the Instagram set-up
flow. The set-up flow will ask you for the following information. Follow the instructions in the flow to add this information.
Action Description Authenticate to your Facebook profile This is the admin profile linked to your company's Facebook Business Manager. You can Continue with the existing profile or sign in to another account. Provide permission to share your Instagram Account with Zendesk. Zendesk needs this permission to connect your Instagram Professional Business Account to the Agent Workspace. Provide permission to share your Facebook Page(s) with Zendesk. Zendesk needs this permission to connect your Instagram Professional Business Account to the Agent Workspace. We recommend that you select all pages. Accept the selected permissions These permissions are needed to send and receive messages from Agent Workspace. - When you've finished the set-up flow, click Done.
- Select the Instagram channel you wish to connect from the drop-down, then click Next.
- Assign a name to the new Instagram channel you are connecting, then click Add
channel. Note that agents need to add comments to an Instagram message from
within the Zendesk Agent Workspace.Note: Replies made directly in Instagram will not add a comment to the related ticket.
As with Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct allows a business only seven days to respond to the end user before the messaging window closes. To prevent messages from being sent but not delivered, the composer will be blocked after the messaging window is closed. The only way to re-open is if the end user sends a new message.
Additionally, Instagram requires that you respond to an end user’s initial message within 24 hours, either by agent engagement, or with an automated message using the auto-responder or chatbot.
Configuring the Instagram Direct channel
After you’ve added Instagram to your social messaging channels, you can configure how it appears and functions.
To configure the Instagram Direct channel
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > Messaging.
- Click the Instagram channel you want to configure to open its Edit page.
- Update the information in the Basics, Auto-responder, and Message Us button tabs, as described in the sections below.
- Click Save after updating the information in each tab.
The Basics tab
The Basics tab is populated with the channel and Instagram profile names.
To edit the Basics tab
- Click in each text box to edit these names.
- Click Save when you’re done.
If multiple brands are attached to your Zendesk account, you’ll also have a dropdown menu to select a brand to connect to the Instagram channel. You can only attach one brand to the channel. If your account has only one brand, this option does not appear under the Basics tab.
The Auto-responder tab
The auto-responder sends messages automatically to an end user when you receive their messages. See Sending automatic responses to social messages for more detailed information on using and configuring the auto-responder.
If you choose to use the auto-responder- Click Enable auto-responder, then enter a message for your customers.
- Click Save when you’re done.
The Message Us button tab
Adding a Message Us button to your website, mobile app, or help center allows customers to discover and connect to your Instagram account, where they can request and receive support via Instagram Direct.
If you choose to add a Message Us button, you’ll need to configure the following elements, then add the HTML code snippet to each page on the website or mobile app where it should be displayed.
Configurable options
As you make the selections below, a preview of the button is updated on the right side of the channel page.
- Color: Choose a gradient style for the button, Dark gray or White.
-
Size: Select Compact or Regular.
-
Corner radius: This number determines how rounded the button’s corners are. Enter a number from 0 (right angle) to 20 (near quarter-round).
-
Label: Enter the text you want displayed on the button.
-
Width: Enter the length you want your button (up to 400 pixels).
Adding the Message Us button
After you’ve configured the options above, you can add the code snippet to your website, mobile app, or help center.
To add the Message Us button to a website or mobile app
- Copy the code snippet to your clipboard.
- Paste the snippet into the HTML of every page that should include the button before the closing tag.
To add the Message Us button to your Zendesk Guide help center
- In Guide, click Guide Admin at the top of the page,
then the Customize design icon (
) on the sidebar.
- On the theme you want to edit, click Customize, then click Edit Code.
- In the Templates section, click the template you want to modify, and add the snippet before the template’s closing tag.
- Click Save.
86 comments
Miranda Burford
Hi Luisa Cunha,
Happy to help with enabling Zendesk messaging! Have you followed the steps here? Please make sure that meet the requirements for using messaging first and let me know how you go with these instructions. If you still experience issues, please send me your subdomain and I can definitely investigate further.
Thanks,
- Miranda.
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Valeria Diaz
Hi, i have this problem, my instagram account is linked with my facebook page, the problem is when i going to linked instagram direct with Zendesk they give me this error
You dont have any account linked with a page.
I need help pleaseeee
0
Gabriel
In this instance, please check if you are an admin in your company's Facebook Business Manager and if you are also an admin of the Facebook page linked to the Instagram account that you are trying to connect. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to confirm this configuration as the settings that need to perform here are outside ZD. You may need to contact Facebook support and request assistance in the necessary authentications to connect the said accounts with your Facebook Business Manager if any issues persist.
In some cases, even though you may be an administrator on all associated accounts (FB, FB Business, and IG) and have managed to connect Facebook Business to Zendesk, the IG Business account can not be connected until you configure it on the Facebook Business Manager (although all previous permissions allowed the connection of IG Business to Facebook Business - https://business.facebook.com).
I have also found some helpful steps online:
- https://www.sotrender.com/resources/knowledge-base/how-do-i-connect-my-instagram-account-to-facebook-business-manager/
- https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1125825714110549?id=4202995988370
I hope this helps!
PS: Don't forget you can always reach out to our Support for a specific approach via these instructions: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843597850
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Trudy Slaght
Wondering if anyone else has had difficulty with getting SLA to apply to IG conversations? I have an SLA set up, and the IG conversation tickets show as having the SLA applied to them, but there is no SLA timer showing on the tickets. Has anyone else run into this?
Edited to add: It looks like when there is an agent work time, there is an SLA that shows up - but the next reply time etc isn't doing anything. We prefer to not use agent work time but rely on next reply time instead. Is there a work around?
0
Gabriel
I hope all is well with you. Please, kindly check that time-based SLAs (First Reply Time, Next Reply Time, and Periodic Updates) are not supported for messaging tickets, as SLAs do not work reliably as agents typically don’t change the ticket status after each reply.
However, status-based SLAs are supported. So, in this case, you can have independent SLAs based on the workable SLA rules for Instagram tickets.
You can find out more about the Messaging limitations and SLAs in the articles below:
"Limitations in messaging functionality" - https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408822351642-Limitations-in-messaging-functionality
"Defining and using SLA policies" - https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829459866-Defining-and-using-SLA-policies
I hope it helps!
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Gabriel
I hope all is well! We understand that the video is still displaying the old Admin Centre interface, but the steps should still be the same and, in this article, you would be able to follow all the up-to-date steps presented to connect your Instagram direct messages to Zendesk.
I can see that you are having some difficulties regarding the Channel integrations options not being displayed on your side. To have this option, your account must meet a few requirements in order to present the option to enable Zendesk Messaging and work with Channels.
You can find the requirements addressed here: "About messaging" - https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360057096813-About-messaging?source=search
"If your account meets the requirements for enabling messaging, you'll see an in-product message on your account's Channels page in the Admin Center.
To enable messaging, you must have an account with:
If your account does meet there requirements and you still can't see the option to enable messaging, please, kindly reach out to our Support via conversations here: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843597850
Thanks!!!
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Jessica Fong
Hi there,
I would like to know how "message request" works in zendesk if we integrated Instagram to messaging? Will it auto accept all the message request and create a ticket for agents to handle? Thank you.
0
Gabriel
I hope all is well!
When adding the IG integration to massaging, these incoming tickets will behave the same way as any other chat ticket. It will not have an automatic routing unless you configure the rules for it, but yes, every message will automatically create a ticket, and then your agents will be able to accept it in order to start serving. I would advise you to create a view dedicated to this channel once you integrate it, so you can manage these tickets in an easier way.
For more information, kindly check: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821905434
I hope this helps!
0
Linda
Hello,
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We have connected FB and TW channels, but I don't see an option to add a new channel? We have 4K followers on Instagram and the setting to Allow Access to Messages is enabled. What could be the issue? Are there some limitations for the active channels with different Zendesk plans?
0
Gabriel
I hope all is well!
Please, kindly check in two posts above I have posted with more details on the requirements to have the Channels option and enable Messaging: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846454682
Please, also note that this article highlights the requirement for Agent Workspace to be enabled in order to use the Instagram Direct Message.
If you decide to move your instance to Zendesk Agent Workspace and your account follows all the requirements presented above, the option for enabling Zendesk Messaging and working with the Channels integration will be displayed to you moving forward.
If your account does meet there requirements and you still can't see the option to enable messaging, please, kindly reach out to our Support via conversations here: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843597850
Thanks!!!
0
Fiona
Hi
Just reading the comments about instagram coming through as a chat...
We have Agent Workspace set up and our Facebook page linked. We handle Facebook PMs through Agent Workspace and they currently appear as regular tickets (not chats). If we want to enable Messaging in Zendesk, will our Facebook page connection change so that Facebook PMs come through as chats? We like the current treatment of Facebook PMs so this would be a potential reason not to switch to Messaging.
Thanks
Fiona
0
DJ Buenavista Jr.
In regards to your concern, once you have enabled Messaging, the following messages will be converted into "Conversations" which is technically a live chat with your customers. There are certain limitations with this, you can check our article Adding Facebook Messenger channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace for more information about this.
Have a wonderful day ahead!
Kind regards,
0
William Flaugher
@... - this is a limitation that a lot of people have asked about on this thread. Does zendesk have any plans to allow channels to come in however your customers prefer? By this, I mean giving us the choice to have facebook/instagram/etc messages populate as on blended "live chat" channel or to have them come in as standard tickets.
Speaking from our personal experience, this would be hugely helpful for our agents and has honestly prevented us from moving forward with the Instagram integration.
1
WhatsApp Connector
Hello, any updates on being able to get mentions as tickets in Zendesk as Amandine mentioned last year? Thanks
3
Shaping New Tomorrow
We would really like what Guillermo said as well. Mentions must be part of the platform, it is subpar now
0
Frédéric
Hello
is it possible to manage DM as ticket or is it only like a chat message?
Thanks
1
Christine
When you add the Instagram Direct channel in Zendesk, you will receive the messages as a ticket in Support.
Here's a sample of what it looks like:
0
Frédéric
@... thanks for sharing!
But just to be sure, instagram direct are not treated as a chat but really same as a standard ticket?
0
Amie Brennan
Frédéric I can confirm that Instagram tickets are treated like a chat. They ARE NOT treated like a standard ticket.
If you want it treated like a normal ticket, you will need to use a third party Instagram app from the Zendesk Marketplace.
Best,
Amie
0
Adrian Chao
Hi all,
Without fully numbered pagination of the comments, it's hard to search through them, so I apologize if I'm repeating another request, but I have a question/request:
We routinely field inquires about a number of different products over instagram DMs, but because the Zendesk integration doesn't allow us to see what post or story initiated the interaction, we currently have to spend time asking what they're talking about.
It's not the best look.
Is it possible to see the original context natively in Zendesk? It'd also be nice to quickly reflect back some of the enthusiasm folks show for our stuff.
1
Dave Dyson
For the best visibility to our product team, and to allow others to add their support to your idea, can you create a new post in our Feedback - Chat and Messaging (Chat) product feedback topic, using this template to format your post?
0
Jasen Samford
It would be great if the Instagram username was pulled into Contacts the way it is with Twitter DMs
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0
Fiona
We have been using this for a couple of weeks but have noticed that if someone sends us an attachment (or photo), it doesn't show in Zendesk - only the message does. Is this right? It's a bit annoying as we need to look at the photo in the native Instagram app...
Thanks
Fiona
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Christine
Instagram integrations support incoming images from end-users and they should attach to the ticket. May I ask if you are still experiencing this issue? If so, could you please try to uninstall and reinstall integration then send a test message, and please let us know by raising a ticket to our support team directly if the issue persists so we can take a closer look?
Option 2: Contacting Zendesk Customer Support from within your product
Thanks,
Christine
0
Daniel
Re
No mention of Reels comments or mentions.
Does "does not support comments", includes comments on Reels? Does the Instagram channel support reel mentions?
0
Mike DR
Facebook and IG Reels integration is not on the product roadmap because Reels is not available via the Facebook and Instagram API at this time.
Our Product Managers are constantly reviewing feedback posted here in our community forum and hopefully, this is something that can be added in the future once Reels via Facebook and Instagram API becomes available. Thanks for understanding!
0