Social Inbox

The Social Inbox brings a client’s Instagram direct messages, comments on their posts and @mentions of their account into AgencyOS, so your team can read and answer them in one place. You work on one workspace at a time; pick it from Workspace at the top. The list shows how many unread conversations each workspace has, and AgencyOS remembers the last workspace you opened on every device.

Connect or reconnect an account

1. Click Connect account and choose Instagram. Platforms marked “Coming soon” can’t be connected yet.
2. Sign in with the client’s Instagram professional account and approve access to messages and comments.
3. AgencyOS imports, in the background, conversations with activity in the last 30 days (up to the 20 most recent messages each) and comments on posts from the last 30 days. Instagram doesn’t share older history. Imported items don’t send notifications.

Accounts that were connected only for publishing show a Reconnect prompt. Reconnect once to grant the new permissions. If the client changes their password or removes access on Instagram, the account is flagged, replies are blocked and you’re asked to Reconnect account. Actions the account doesn’t allow are hidden or disabled with an explanation.

Find conversations

• There are three kinds of conversation: Direct Message, Comment (a comment and its replies on one post) and Mention.
• Newest activity is at the top. Use Search conversations to search by customer name, handle or message text, and the All, Unread and Recent tabs to narrow the list.
• The filter panel narrows by Priority, Comments, Direct Messages, Mentions, Pending and Resolved, and by Channels and Labels. Each filter shows its count.
• New messages appear within a few seconds without reloading the page.

Read state is for your team only

Opening a conversation marks it read for the whole team, not just for you. A new customer message makes it unread again for everyone. Use Mark as Unread to flag it for a teammate, or Mark as Read without opening it.

Photos, shared posts and other messages

• Messages are grouped by day under a Today, Yesterday or date divider. Messages sent by the same person within a few minutes are grouped, and the time is shown under the last one. Hover over any message to see its full date and time.
• Your last message shows Seen once the customer has read it on Instagram, otherwise Sent. Read receipts start from when this feature was released; older messages stay at Sent.
• Photos show as small thumbnails. Click one to open it full size, use the arrows to move between photos in the same message, and press Esc to close.
• Posts and reels shared from your account show as a card with a link to open them on Instagram. Story mentions and story replies link to the story while Instagram still has it.
• When a customer replies to a specific message, the reply shows a short quote of it. If that message isn’t loaded yet, the quote says “Replied to an earlier message”.
• Conversations started from an Instagram ad show a From ad badge with the ad’s title.

Reply to direct messages

1. Type in Write a reply…. You can also attach PNG or JPEG images from the workspace’s media library.
2. Click Send (or press Ctrl+Enter). The reply shows “Sending…” and then “Sent”, with your name as the author.
3. If Instagram is busy, AgencyOS tries again automatically. If it still fails, the reason is shown and your text is kept; click Retry.

Comments and mentions

• Comment and mention conversations show the related post with its caption and a link to view it on Instagram.
• Reply publicly with Write a public reply…. Where Instagram doesn’t allow a reply from AgencyOS, use Reply on Instagram instead.
• Hide a comment from the comment’s menu and bring it back with Unhide. Hidden comments stay visible to the person who wrote them.
• Delete comment removes it from Instagram permanently and asks you to confirm first. AgencyOS keeps it marked as deleted by your team, with who did it and when.

Work as a team

• Status: every conversation is Open, Pending or Resolved. Use Resolve, Mark Pending and Reopen. A new customer message reopens it automatically.
• Priority: Mark as Priority pins attention on a conversation; Remove Priority clears it.
• Label: give a conversation one label: Sales, Support, Lead, Complaint, Inquiry or Collaboration.
• Assignee: assign a teammate who has inbox access, or set it back to Unassigned. The assignee is notified about new messages; unassigned conversations notify everyone with inbox access to the workspace.
• Notes: switch the composer to Internal Note to leave a note for your team. Notes are highlighted, never sent to Instagram and never seen by the customer.

Every change is recorded in the conversation’s history and in your agency’s activity history, with who made it and when.

Customer details

Click Show customer details to open the side panel. It shows the customer’s name, handle and conversation status, how many conversations you’ve had with them, a View profile link and their Conversation History.

How long inbox data is kept

• When an account is disconnected, its conversations become read-only. The reply box shows the date the history will be deleted. Reconnect within 30 days to keep it; otherwise it is deleted automatically.
• Deleting a workspace deletes its inbox history straight away. Restoring the workspace doesn’t bring it back; only recent history returns through a new import once the account is reconnected.
• If a customer asks Instagram to delete their data, AgencyOS deletes that customer’s inbox data too.
• To remove an account’s inbox history yourself, click Delete inbox data on the account banner and type DELETE to confirm. Publishing and the connection itself are not affected.

WhatsApp Business

1. Choose WhatsApp under Connect account. The client signs in to Meta and selects a WhatsApp Business Account and phone number. Both Cloud API numbers and eligible numbers used in the WhatsApp Business app are supported.
2. After connecting, add the client’s payment method in WhatsApp Manager. Meta bills the client directly; AgencyOS does not collect WhatsApp message charges.
3. For a number also used in the Business app, AgencyOS asks for earlier one-to-one history once. The client may decline. New messages still arrive either way.

WhatsApp allows free-form replies for 24 hours after the customer’s last message. After that, use an approved WhatsApp template. Templates are managed and approved in WhatsApp Manager; Meta may charge for a business-initiated template.

• Incoming photos, video, audio and files stay at Meta and are streamed when you open them. They are available for up to seven days and are never copied into AgencyOS storage.
• The Business app keeps one-to-one messaging, but companion devices are unlinked during onboarding and must be linked again. WhatsApp for Windows and WearOS are not supported for coexistence.
• Disappearing/view-once messages, live location and broadcast lists change or become unavailable. AgencyOS does not show groups, calls, Channels, status posts, catalogs, orders, app labels, greetings, away messages or quick replies.
• Disconnecting makes history read-only and starts the same 30-day deletion period. Workspace managers can also delete one WhatsApp customer’s data from the customer panel.