Overview
Conversa Labs receives Instagram and Facebook Messenger messages containing text, images, video, audio, files, shares, Stories and Reels. Replies, reactions, reads, postbacks, referrals, edits and unsent messages also update the conversation when Meta makes the event available to the connected account.
Inbound media is copied to the installation storage, so the conversation no longer depends on Meta's temporary link after processing finishes.
Prerequisites
- An Instagram or Facebook Messenger inbox connected by an administrator.
- Meta permissions approved for the Page or professional account.
- A valid authorization for the connection.
Step by step
- Open Settings → Inboxes and confirm that the social account is connected.
- Send a test DM from the native app.
- Test text, one media item, and a shared Reel or Story.
- Open the conversation in Conversa Labs and wait for the media processing indicator to clear.
- Reply, react, or choose a quick reply to validate the outbound path.
Settings & options
- Quick replies: up to 13 options can be sent natively.
- Message replies: keep the original message reference when Meta provides its ID.
- Processing media: text appears immediately while the file is copied in the background.
- Unavailable media: Meta did not provide the bytes or its link had already expired; the rest of the conversation remains available.
- Mentions: when Meta provides the author, the mention is associated with that contact and their active conversation. If the author cannot be resolved, it remains in a read-only fallback that a later delivery can reconcile.
Use cases
- Receive a shared Reel with a caption without losing the video inside a text bubble.
- Handle messages containing multiple photos or videos.
- Use quick replies in automations and flows.
- Record reactions, edits, removals, and attribution from ads or social links.
- Review a mention with author, text, preview, and link when the connected account is authorized to access that context.
Tips, limits & best practices
- The user must start an Instagram conversation; Meta does not allow unrestricted business-initiated DMs.
- Instagram group conversations are not supported by its messaging API.
- Some shares provide only a post URL, not the original media file. In that case, Conversa Labs shows a link card instead of trying to play the page as a video.
- Mention context is obtained only through Meta's authorized API; Conversa Labs does not scrape Instagram.
- Reply within Meta's messaging window and policies.
Troubleshooting
- Nothing arrives: reconnect the inbox and confirm Page/account permissions.
- “Processing media” remains visible: allow the automatic retries to finish; the text is already saved.
- “Media unavailable” appears: use the native app to inspect it; an already expired Meta link cannot be reconstructed.
- The share is a link: for some posts and Reels, that is the only content Meta provides.
- The mention has no author or preview: confirm the connected account permissions. The mention is preserved without exposing technical identifiers and can be enriched if Meta grants access later.