The Quick Automations feature in Manychat continues to evolve, and we're excited to share a fantastic new addition: the ability to automate responses to story replies. Previously, Quick Automations were available for comment replies, and now you can extend the same powerful functionality to Instagram stories, creating even more opportunities to engage with your audience.
Just like comment replies, Quick Automations for story replies allow you to automate interactions such as collecting lead information, sending follow-up messages, and building stronger connections with followers. This addition opens up new possibilities for driving engagement, while saving you valuable time.
If you're already familiar with how Quick Automations work for comment replies, you'll find the setup for story replies just as intuitive. This feature is a fantastic way to make your lead generation process more effective and efficient. Let's dive into how you can use it!
Set up automated responses to story replies via Quick Automations
Getting started with automated responses to story replies using Quick Automations is easy and convenient. You can access this feature directly from the Home → Start Here section in your Manychat account. Simply click on the option to begin the setup process.
This will redirect you to the Quick Automation setup page, where you can configure everything. Let’s break down each step in the process together!
When someone replies to…
In this section, you can choose whether this trigger should work with any story or a specific one:
As you adjust these settings, a real-time preview will display how they’ll appear on Instagram, ensuring everything looks perfect.
⚠️ Note: To use the specific story option, you must have active stories. The list will only show stories that are currently live on your account.
And this reply has…
Here, you can define specific words or reactions that a story reply must include to activate the automation, or set it to trigger for any word or reaction.
⚠️ Note: You should use commas to separate words and reactions; otherwise, multiple words written consecutively without commas will be treated as a single keyword.
Then they will get a DM with a link…
This section allows you to configure the initial direct message that the users will receive in response to their story replies. Here’s what you can customize:
- Message content: Craft the text for the message that will be sent to users.
- Button link: Insert the URL you want to share with your audience inside the button.
- Button title: Set up the title for the button to make it clear and enticing.
A live preview will display all the changes you make, showing exactly how the message will appear to your contacts on Instagram.
Other things to automate
In this final section, you have the opportunity to enhance your automation by adding a few more interactive touches.
These options can help boost engagement, grow your audience, and gather valuable information—all while keeping things simple and fun for your users. Let’s explore what you can do:
React to story replies with ❤️: Show your audience some love by automatically reacting to their story replies with a heart emoji. This small but meaningful gesture makes users feel appreciated and encourages them to engage with your business more often. It’s like saying, “We see you, and we’re happy you’re here!”
Follow up to grow engagement: Boost engagement by sending a follow-up message 5 minutes after the last message. For example, you could ask if they enjoyed the content or if they have any questions about your products. Follow-ups keep the conversation flowing and help create a stronger connection with your audience.
Ask to follow before sending the link: Manychat can check if the user is already following your account on Instagram. If not, an additional message will kindly prompt them to follow you first before receiving the link they requested. This ensures that your content reaches an engaged audience while helping to grow your follower base.
Ask for email: You can use this option to ask users for their email address. Whether you want to send them exclusive offers, updates, or a sweet discount on their next order, collecting emails is a great way to build long-term relationships and engage with your audience beyond Instagram.
If all these features are enabled, the order will be as follows:
- Story reply reaction with ❤️
- Email collection
- Follow request
- Main message with the link
- Follow-up reminder
Below you can see how these messages are arranged in the automation when all these features are enabled:
Go live
After completing your setup, 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, bringing 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 understand that the Runs metric doesn't always align with the Sent count shown in the Activity tab — and this difference comes down to how your automation is structured.
Specifically, the Runs number is based on the very first message node in your automation. Depending on which options you enable in the “Other things to automate” section, this first node can vary — meaning Runs might not always represent the number of times the DM with the link was sent.
For example, if you enable the “Ask to follow before sending the link” option, that message becomes the first step in your automation. In this case, the Runs metric will count how many times that specific prompt was sent, even though the link hasn’t been delivered yet. Similarly, if you turn on the “Ask for email” option, it will become the new starting point. So now, Runs reflects the number of times the email request message was triggered — not the message with the link.
On the other hand, if you don't enable any of the private message-related options in that section, then the DM with the link becomes the default first message. As a result, Runs and Sent will match because they’re tracking the same step.
To illustrate this, let’s look at a few examples. Suppose you’ve enabled “Ask to follow” — you might see 3,000 Runs and 2,600 Sent, meaning 400 users saw the follow prompt but didn’t progress to the link. If instead you enabled “Ask for email”, the numbers might show 5,000 Runs and 4,200 Sent, again reflecting a natural drop-off before reaching the DM with the link.
But in a simpler setup, where neither feature is turned on, both values might be 2,150 — fully aligned.
Understanding this relationship between the Runs and Sent metrics helps clear up confusion and gives you a more accurate view of how people interact with your automation.
⚠️ Note: You can enable or disable any of the options in the “Other things to automate” section. 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.
Limitations and troubleshooting
- The Quick Automation for story replies will only work with stories in your Instagram highlights if you choose the “any story” option. Even after a story expires, the automation will continue to function if the story has been added to your Instagram highlights.
- The Quick Automation for story replies cannot be applied to specific highlight stories or stories shared with close friends.
- The Quick Automation for story replies is currently available on desktop only.
If you’re experiencing any issues with Quick Automations — or have feedback to help us make the feature even better — feel free to reach out to our Support Team.