Answers all day, and all night

The worst reply a customer can get is none. A question about stock at 23:00, a price question on a Sunday, a "are you open today?" while the team is busy: each one waits, and some of them go to the business that answered first. An inbox auto-reply makes sure every message gets something useful at once, without stepping on the answers your team and your keyword automations already give. This guide sets one up step by step: the default reply for messages nothing else answers, a welcome for first messages, a different answer outside business hours, and the rules that hand the chat back to a person the moment they reply.

How an Instagram and WhatsApp auto reply works

Set up an automatic DM reply from the template

Open Automations and search the gallery for "default". Default reply answers every DM no other automation answers, so no one waits for a reply.

Press Use template and replace the example text with your own. A good default reply does three things: it thanks the person, it answers the question most people ask, and it offers the next step with buttons.

Reply to any message, or only to keywords

Open the DM trigger. Set to Any message, it works as your default reply: the panel says it answers only the messages that no other automation matches.

That order is what keeps the inbox sane:

1. Keyword automations answer when their word matches: PRICE, HOURS, BOOK.
2. Intent (AI), if you use it, picks an automation for a message no keyword matched.
3. Any message answers everything else.

Two switches change who it answers:

• Only the first message of a conversation turns it into a welcome, so a returning customer is not greeted again and again.
• Only text messages leaves photos, voice notes and stickers to your team.

Write an auto reply message that actually helps

"Thanks, we'll get back to you" helps nobody at 23:00. A useful default reply answers before it promises:

with buttons such as Prices, Book a time and Talk to a person. Each button starts its own small automation, so the person gets an answer in one tap instead of waiting for a person.

Set an away message for after business hours

There are two ways to change the reply outside your hours.

A schedule on the automation. Open the automation's settings and choose On a schedule instead of Always on. Set weekly hours in your business time zone, a start and end date if you like, and holidays: skip them, or run only on them. Your workspace's business calendar and up to 100 dates of the automation's own can be used.

A condition in the flow. The Business hours condition checks whether you are open right now, using the hours in your workspace settings, and gives the flow two paths: open and closed. One automation then says "a teammate will reply shortly" during the day and "we're closed, we'll reply first thing at 9:00" at night.

For WhatsApp, the WhatsApp away message template does exactly that: outside your business hours, it tells customers when a person will get back to them.

Let AI answer what an auto reply can't

A fixed reply covers the common questions. For the rest, an AI agent step on a paid plan answers from the sources you add, such as your pricing page, your shipping page or a short text with the facts, on your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini or Azure OpenAI key. When the answer is not in your sources, or the customer asks for a person, the agent takes its other path, which you connect to Notify the team.

Put AI after your keywords, not in front of them. A keyword answer costs nothing and says exactly what you wrote.

Hand the chat over to your team

An auto-reply should never argue with a person. When a teammate replies in the inbox, the automation running in that chat stops, and the bot stays quiet for the time you set under Settings, Inbox, 30 minutes unless you change it. Pause the bot at the top of a conversation starts that quiet time before you type, for 30 minutes, 1 hour or 24 hours.

To make sure no one waits too long once the auto-reply has answered, turn on Unanswered conversations in the same settings: when a customer waits longer than the time you choose for a reply, the assigned teammate hears about it.

Auto reply message examples you can adapt

Each one answers before it promises, gives three choices and sounds like the business, which is what makes people keep reading. Rewrite the example in your own words; the person reading it knows your voice from your posts.

Holiday auto reply messages

Holidays are where auto-replies earn their keep. A few habits:

• Add the dates once. Holidays in your workspace's business calendar apply to every automation that follows it, and each automation can add its own dates on top.
• Choose the mode. Skip holidays, so the normal reply stays quiet, or run only on holidays, for a special "we're closed for the holidays" automation.
• Say when you reopen. "Back on 3 January" is better than "closed for the holidays".
• Point to what still works. Online booking, the shop, the order form: whatever does not need a person.

Check what the auto reply answered

Each automation's Activity tab lists every run: how it ended, how long it took and where it stopped. Read the messages that reached your default reply every week. Each one that keeps coming back deserves its own keyword automation with a precise answer, and your default reply gets shorter over time.

Auto reply example: a bakery's inbox

A bakery gets the same messages every day: are you open, do you have gluten-free bread, can I order a cake.

1. Keywords first. CAKE starts a cake order flow with the sizes and the order form; GLUTEN answers with the gluten-free list.
2. The default reply answers everything else with the opening hours, the address and three buttons: Order a cake, Today's bread, Talk to us.
3. Outside hours, the Business hours condition sends "We're closed right now, we open at 7:00. Leave your order and we'll confirm it in the morning."
4. A teammate answers the cake questions during the day, and the bot stays quiet while they do.

Messages at 22:00 get the hours and the cake form at once, and the morning shift starts with orders instead of questions.

How to write a good auto reply message

• Answer the top question in the reply itself. Prices, hours or delivery, whichever people ask most.
• Offer buttons, not a wall of text. Three choices are enough.
• Say when a person will answer. "Within the hour on weekdays" is honest and calms people down.
• Keep it short. It is read on a phone, often in a notification preview of two lines.
• Change it with the season. Holiday hours, a sale, a new product: the default reply is the first thing people see.

Auto reply rules on Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger

Auto reply mistakes to avoid

• An auto-reply that answers first. Use Any message, so keywords and intents still win.
• The same welcome every time. Turn on Only the first message of a conversation.
• "We'll get back to you" and nothing else. Answer the common question in the reply.
• No closed-hours message. At night, say when you will be back.
• Never reading what it caught. The messages your default reply answers are your next keyword automations.

Auto reply glossary

• Any message. A DM trigger mode that works as the default reply, answering what no other automation matches.
• Only the first message. A trigger switch that runs the automation once at the start of a conversation.
• Business hours condition. A flow step that checks whether you are open now and gives the flow two paths.
• Schedule. Weekly hours, dates and holidays that decide when an automation can start.
• Quiet time. How long the bot stays silent in a chat after a teammate replies.
• Unanswered conversations. The inbox setting that alerts a teammate when a customer waits too long.

DM auto reply: FAQ

Can I have different default replies per channel?

Yes. Each automation belongs to one channel's trigger, so Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram can each have their own default reply.

Will the auto-reply answer during a live chat with my team?

No. While the quiet time runs after a teammate's reply, automations for that contact are paused.

Does a schedule stop a flow that already started?

No. A schedule decides when an automation can start; a flow already running finishes its steps.

Can the auto-reply say who will answer?

Yes. Write it into the message, such as "Ana from our team replies on weekdays", and keep it true; when the team changes, change the reply.

Does the auto reply work with voice notes?

Incoming voice notes are turned into text on our own servers, so automations can read their words. Turn on Only text messages if you would rather leave them to your team.

Sources

• Messenger Platform and IG Messaging API policy, Meta for Developers, on the 24-hour window.
• Template fundamentals, Meta for Developers, on WhatsApp templates outside the window.