Adding a chatbot to Instagram

You can deploy the same chatbot, with the same Q&A, on your website and other channels, including Instagram.

This means you can automate the answering of frequently asked questions, wherever your customers are asking them. All your chat forms and escalations will work on Instagram too.

To set up your bot in Instagram, you'll first need to create an Instagram app, and then connect it to your FAQ Bot.

This article describes the steps you need to take.

• A Meta for Developers account. If you don't have an account, you can create one at developers.facebook.com. Each tester will also need their own Meta for Developers account.
• An Instagram Professional account with a linked profile from which users will access your bot. 
• A Facebook page linked to your Instagram profile. If you don't have one yet, Create a new Page.
• A Premium FAQ Bot subscription. Instagram bots are not available on Starter or Standard plans. See pricing.
• For app review, another Instagram account that can be shared with app reviewers (ie you need to be comfortable sharing credentials). Note this is a extra step required at the time of writing, as the test user creation capability in Instagram has been unavailable for some months.

Bot features on Instagram

There are some differences in how bot features work on Instagram, due to the limitations of that channel. 

Create an app

Users will access your bot by messaging an Instagram profile. To connect the bot, you'll first create an app and then connect the bot to the app.

Create your app

1. Sign in to your Meta for Developers account.
2. Go to Create App
3. On the Create an app page, select Other and then Next
   
   
4. On the Select an app type page select Business and click Next
5. On the Details page, enter a name for your app and select Create app.
   • If prompted, enter your password and select Submit to create your app.
   • After your app is created, the site goes to a page for your app.
6. You'll see a set of products. Click Set up on Messenger
7. You'll then be prompted to select your Meta Business Account.

Configure your app

Configuration

Under Messenger on the side menu, click Instagram settings.

1. Connect your page - in the Access tokens section, click Add or remove Pages
   
   
   
   
2. Enter the callback URL. This is in the format https://bot.faqbot.nz/api/v1.0/webhook/{PAGE_ID}/{FAQ_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY}/messages
   1. Find your {PAGE_ID} on this page - it's the number next to your page icon on the page token table
      
   2. Find your {FAQ_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY} on the Widget setup tab in the FAQ Bot Portal > Configuration > Main
   3. Enter "faq" in Verify token
   4. Click Verify and save
3. Click Manage to edit Instagram Webhook subscriptions. Select messages and messaging_postbacks and click Save
   

Connect your bot 

In the FAQ Bot portal, navigate to the Channel settings tab on Configuration > Main

In the Instagram section:

1. Enter your Access token

You can use a Page token, but this token is tied to the user who created it.

To avoid future token issues, you should follow this guide to set up a system user access token, and assign the app you have created above as an asset.

Some things to note on your system access token:

• Token expiration - when your token expires, your bot will stop working. So you may wish to set expiry to "Never" (recommended)
• Permissions required: instagram_basic, instagram_manage_messages, pages_manage_metadata

2. Enter your App secret

You'll find this in your Meta for Developers Account, under App settings > Basic

Once the steps above are complete, you will be ready to test your bot on Instagram. 

Testing your bot in Instagram

Setting up your testers

• To test your bot, users will need a Meta for Developers account, and will need to provide you with their Facebook ID.
• Select App roles > Roles and click Add to assign testers

App verification details
You may also need to provide credentials so app reviewers can test your app. This is where you may need a separate account for testing (see prerequisites above).
Complete App verification details as shown below: