The Quick Automations feature in Manychat enables you to automate Instagram comment replies and streamline various interactions, like enhancing follower engagement, collecting email addresses, sending follow-up offers, and more. This powerful tool helps you save time while building stronger connections with your audience.
Quick Automations are designed to complement, not replace, the current tools available on Manychat. It offers a simpler alternative that integrates seamlessly with other established features like the Basic Builder and Flow Builder. This setup streamlines the automation creation process, making it especially useful for those new to DM automation, while providing experienced creators with powerful tools to enhance their strategies.
Set up automated comment replies via Quick Automations
To set up automated comment replies with the new builder, navigate to Home tab, and then click the Auto-DM links from comments card in the Start Here section:
Next, follow a simple step-by-step process to set up an automation. Let's break down each building block:
When someone comments on...
You can also choose whether this trigger should work with a specific post or reel, any post or reel, or next post or reel.
As you customize the settings, a real-time preview shows exactly how they will appear on Instagram.
⚠️ Note: You can have only one active next post or reel automation at a time — once it’s triggered by a new post or reel, you’ll be able to create another one.
💡 For more information on comment reply automation for collaborative and boosted posts, check out the article Instagram Post and Reel Comments Trigger.
And this reply has…
Then, specify words that comments must contain to trigger the automation, or set the trigger to activate with any comment:
⚠️ If you have multiple active Instagram comment reply triggers in your account, keep the automation order in mind.
They will get…
An Opening DM
The next step is to set up a private direct message called an Opening DM. Your contacts will receive it after they engage with the chosen post or reel.
The Opening DM is similar to saying, 'Hey! Can you talk right now?' before making a call.
When the recipients tap the button in the opening DM, they opt into the conversation with you, confirming, 'Yes, I'm free to chat.' This allows you to send additional messages to them in the next 24 hours.
⚠️ Note: The Opening DM is optional. You can freely enable or disable it by turning the toggle next to it off and on, depending on whether you want to use this feature in your automation.
A DM with the link
If the Opening DM is enabled, once your contacts tap the button in it, a follow-up message will be sent automatically.
💡 You can now customize this message with up to three links — perfect for directing traffic to multiple destinations like business pages, product info, or affiliate content.
Prefer to keep it simple? You also have the option to send text-only messages without any links.
If the Opening DM is disabled, then this message will be the very first one contacts receive in their Instagram DMs after engaging with the chosen post or reel.
Other things to automate
In this last section, you can decide if you'd like to do anything else with your automation.
Reply under the post so people feel seen and special: You can create three custom messages that will be shuffled by Manychat for dynamic engagement. This feature allows you to craft personalized responses that keep your interactions varied and engaging.
Follow up to re-engage and build trust: Set up a follow-up message to re-engage users who didn’t click the link. This helps maintain the conversation and increases the chances of converting interest into action.
Automatically ask for a follow to build your audience: Manychat will check if the user already follows your Instagram page. If they don't, an additional message will prompt them to follow you first before receiving the link. This encourages audience growth while ensuring that only engaged users receive your content.
Ask for emails in DMs to keep in touch beyond social: This option sends an additional message either after the Opening DM (if enabled) or as the first message in the automation (if the Opening DM is disabled), prompting users to share their email addresses. This feature allows you to effortlessly grow your subscriber list and engage with your audience beyond Instagram.
When all these features are enabled, the order is as follows:
- Opening DM
- Email collection
- Follow request
- Main message with the link
- Follow-up reminder
Go live
Once your setup is complete, click Go Live in the top-right corner to activate the automation:
Edit your automation after going live or stop it
If you need to make adjustments to your automation after it has gone live, you can easily return to the setup page. Simply click the Edit button in the upper right corner.
Once you're in edit mode, make the necessary changes, and when you're done, click the Update button to publish your changes.
⚠️ Note: If you edit your automation, the data in the performance section won't reset to zero, so you won't lose any previous metrics.
Afterward, you'll be redirected back to the Activity section to monitor your updated automation's performance.
If you decide at any point to stop the automation fully, click the Stop button in the upper right corner.
💡 Don't worry—if you want to reactivate it later, you can do so by clicking the Go Live button, which will appear in the same section. This will bring your automation back live seamlessly.
Check your automation’s performance in the Activity tab
After you go live, you will be redirected to the Activity tab, where you can track the performance of your automation.
Here, you'll find all the relevant data, including metrics such as sent, delivered, read, and clicked rates, as well as the number of emails collected. These numbers give you a quick snapshot of what’s working and where there might be room to improve.
Now let’s break down each metric and see exactly how it’s calculated, so you can better understand what your automation is telling you:
- Sent – The total number of times a DM with the link was sent.
- Delivered – The number of users who successfully received a DM with the link.
- Read – The number of users who opened and read a DM with the link.
- Clicked – The number of users who clicked the button in a DM with the link.
- Emails collected – The number of users who submitted their email address, if the email collection option was enabled in your automation.
Runs vs Sent
Another important metric to keep in mind — and one that often causes confusion — is the number of Runs for your automation.
Unlike the performance metrics found in the Activity tab, this one is located in the Automations tab. Simply scroll to the automation in question, and you'll see the number of Runs displayed next to its name.
It’s important to note that the Runs metric sometimes differs from the Sent count shown in the Activity tab, depending on the structure of your automation — and there’s a valid, understandable reason for this.
If the optional opening DM is enabled in your automation, then the Runs count reflects the number of times that the opening DM was sent. Meanwhile, the Sent metric shows how many times the DM with the link was sent.
On the other hand, if the opening DM is turned off, then both Runs and Sent are counted based on the DM with the link. In this case, the DM with the link becomes the first message node in the automation by default.
This happens because, without the optional opening DM enabled, features in the “Other things to automate” section cannot be enabled — except for the “Reply under the post so people feel seen and special” option, which is related to public comments, not private messages.
In the example automation shown in the screenshots above, the optional opening DM is enabled. You can see that the Runs count is 238,986, while the Sent metric shows 222,707.
So why the difference?
This happens because Runs reflects the total number of times the automation was triggered — specifically, how many times the opening DM (as the first message in the automation) was sent. Meanwhile, Sent only counts how many times the DM with the link was sent.
Some users may receive the opening DM but never reach the part of the automation where the DM with the link is sent — for example, if they don’t press the button and drop off after the first message.
To highlight why the opening DM is such a valuable feature: this message isn't just a technical starting point — it plays a key role in how you build stronger engagement.
The opening DM initiates the conversation and encourages people to interact right from the start. When someone clicks the button in it, they’re not just progressing through the automation — they’re actively opening a two-way conversation with you.
This interaction unlocks a range of possibilities beyond simply sending a link. It allows you to create a more personal, conversational experience, build trust, and increase the likelihood that your audience will engage with the rest of your automation — including clicking that DM with the link.
So while the differences between Runs and Sent may seem technical, they actually reflect how your audience is interacting with your automation — and why having an opening DM can be a smart and strategic choice.
⚠️ Note: You can enable or disable the optional opening DM at any point. If this is changed after the automation starts running, the Runs statistic will fluctuate because the first node is modified.
Meanwhile, the Sent statistic will remain unchanged, as the DM with the link node is always part of the automation. In short, if you change the automation and replace the first node, the Runs statistic will reflect the new first node.
If you’re experiencing any issues with Quick Automations or have feedback to help us improve the feature, feel free to contact our Support Team.