# Instagram comment and DM triage inbox for your team

> Work every unanswered Instagram comment, Reel reply and Direct message from one queue, with claimed rows so two people never answer the same person.

- Workflow type: app
- Services: Instagram, HubSpot, Slack Bot
- Categories: Marketing, Customer Support
- Published: 2026-08-24

## What it does

- Pulls comments on your recent posts and Reels, your Direct messages, and posts other people tagged you in into one queue, sorted so whoever has waited longest sits at the top.
- Shows the post thumbnail and its reach and engagement numbers beside every row, then lets you reply, send a Direct message, hide or delete spam, or switch comments off on a post that has turned into a pile-on, straight from the row.
- Tracks claimed and handled status inside the app, because Instagram itself has no read or assigned state, so you can see who picked up a row and anything already answered drops out of the queue.
- A Draft replies button hands the open queue to an assistant that sorts every item into question, buying intent, complaint or spam and writes a reply in your brand voice for a person to edit and send, with one click to save buyers into HubSpot or pass complaints to the team in Slack.

## What you'll need

- An Instagram Business or Creator account, since personal accounts cannot be managed this way
- A HubSpot login if you want to save buying-intent commenters as leads
- A Slack workspace if you want to hand complaints over to the team
- The names of the people on your team who will work the queue, so claimed rows show who has picked them up

## Prompt

Build me an internal app my community manager opens every morning to work every unanswered Instagram comment and Direct message from a single queue. The Instagram app buries comments under follow notifications, and two people on my team keep replying to the same person, so I want one triage inbox the whole team works out of.

The main surface is one list. One handler calls Instagram List Media to get my recent posts and Reels, then calls Instagram List Comments on each of them to collect feed comments and Reel comments. A second handler calls Instagram List Direct Conversations for DM threads. A third handler calls Instagram Get Tagged Media for posts other people tagged me in. Merge all three sources into one list sorted by who has waited longest, oldest first, so the person who has been ignored the longest sits at the top.

Every row shows the commenter or sender handle, the full text, how long they have been waiting, the item type (feed comment, Reel comment, Direct message or tagged post), and a thumbnail of the post it belongs to. Next to the thumbnail, show reach, likes, saves and shares for that post from Instagram Get Media Insights, so whoever is working the queue can tell a quiet post from one that is taking off. Fetch insights once per post and reuse them across that post's rows rather than calling per row.

Every row has inline actions that write straight back to Instagram. Reply to Comment posts a public reply, Send Direct Message sends a DM, Hide or Delete Comment clears spam, and Enable or Disable Comments turns commenting off on a post that has turned into a pile-on. Actions run from the row without navigating away, and the row updates in place once the write succeeds.

Instagram has no read state and no assignment of its own, so the app has to store that itself. Persist a handled flag and a claimed-by field per item, keyed on the Instagram comment id or conversation id. When someone opens a row, claim it in their name and show that name on the row so nobody else picks it up. Once an item is answered by anyone on the team, hide it from the open queue and keep it in a Handled view anyone can look back at. Two people working the queue at the same time should never both see the same row as unclaimed.

Filters across the top: item type, unhandled versus handled, claimed by me versus anyone, and a filter down to a single post. The single post filter matters most when a Reel hits Explore and there are hundreds of comments to moderate at volume, so make that view fast to work through with the moderation actions one click away per row.

Put a Draft replies button above the queue that kicks off an embedded background agent. The agent reads every open item in the queue, classifies each one as question, buying intent, complaint or spam, and writes a suggested reply in my brand voice. The drafts land back in the app inside each row's reply box for a person to edit and send, and the classification shows as a label on the row. The agent never sends anything itself; a human always presses send.

Any row the agent labels buying intent gets a Save as lead button. That calls HubSpot Create Contact for the commenter handle, then HubSpot Create Note holding the comment text and the permalink of the post, associated to that contact, so sales sees exactly what the person said and where they said it. Rows labelled complaint get a Hand to team button that posts the text, the handle and the link into a chosen channel using Slack Bot Send a Message.

Two things to bake in. Only Instagram Business and Creator accounts are reachable, so if the connected account is personal, say so clearly on screen instead of showing an empty queue. Direct message sending is bounded by the reply window Instagram allows after the person's last message, so surface a readable error on the row when a send is rejected rather than failing silently.

## How to customize

- How far back the queue reaches, and whether tagged posts and Direct messages are included alongside comments
- The brand voice the assistant writes in and the categories it sorts items into
- Which Slack channel complaints go to, and what lifecycle stage saved leads land on in HubSpot

## FAQ

### Does this work with a personal Instagram account?

No. Only Instagram Business and Creator accounts can be managed from outside the app, so you will need to switch your account to a professional one first. It is free and takes a minute in your Instagram settings.

### Will this stop two people on my team replying to the same person?

Yes. Instagram has no idea who on your team has seen what, so the app keeps that record itself. When someone opens a row it is claimed in their name, and anything already answered by anyone drops out of the open queue.

### Do replies I send here actually appear on Instagram?

Yes. Replying, sending a Direct message, hiding or deleting a comment and turning comments off all write straight back to Instagram from the row. There is no copy and paste step.

### Can I use this to moderate a Reel that has gone viral?

That is exactly what the single post filter is for. Narrow the queue down to one post and work through hundreds of comments with hide, delete and reply one click away, or switch commenting off on that post entirely.

### Does the assistant send replies on its own?

No. It only drafts. Every suggested reply lands in the row for a person to read, edit and send, so nothing goes out in your brand voice without a human approving it.

### What happens to comments from people who look like buyers?

Anything the assistant marks as buying intent gets a Save as lead button that files the person in HubSpot along with a note holding their exact comment and a link back to the post, so sales can pick up the thread with full context.

Use this prompt in General Input: https://www.generalinput.com/prompts/instagram-comment-and-dm-triage-inbox-for-your-team