Best answer
On Instagram and X, yes: one automation can post a public reply under the comment and send a private message to the same person. On Facebook Pages it is private message only, with no public reply.
That split is a platform difference, not a plan difference. In ChatinFlow the two steps are separate actions, so a comment flow usually looks like this:
- Trigger: comment on a post or Reel, with or without a keyword filter.
- Public reply: a short acknowledgement so other readers see you answered.
- Private reply: the actual content, the link, the next question.
The public part matters more than it looks. A comment thread where the business never visibly responds reads as unattended even when every commenter received a DM, because the DM is invisible to everyone else. A three word public reply fixes that.
Two limits worth knowing before you build it. The public reply is a reply to that comment, so it is not a way to broadcast. And the private reply opens the 24 hour messaging window, which starts from their comment, not from your reply.
If you are on Facebook and were planning a public auto-reply, plan for the DM only and handle public comments by hand, or ask a teammate to sweep the thread.