Links in Instagram messages
On Instagram, a link written into a message can't be tapped in the Instagram app on Android phones: it shows as plain text. So Yapper sends links in Instagram messages as buttons the customer taps to open the page.
How a link arrives
When a message to an Instagram customer contains a link starting with http:// or https://, the customer gets the message with a button under it for each link. The button is labeled with the website's name, such as shop.com, and opens the link. A message can carry up to 3 links, each as its own button; two links to the same website are labeled shop.com 1 and shop.com 2.
In the text itself:
- A link on a line of its own, or right after a colon at the end of a line, is taken out of the text: "Book here: https://cal.com/you" arrives as "Book here:" with the button under it. A message that is only a link arrives as the website's name and its button.
- Any other link reads as the website's name: "Visit https://shop.com/sizes to see the sizes" arrives as "Visit shop.com to see the sizes", and "Compare https://shop.com/a and https://shop.com/b" as "Compare shop.com 1 and shop.com 2", with the buttons under the message.
This applies to every Instagram message: your assistant's replies, follow-ups and messages that open a phase, the links your Comment Triggers send, the messages you or your team send from the Inbox, and announcements from Broadcasts that have no buttons of their own (the composer's preview shows the buttons). Private replies to comments stay as plain text.
A web address without http:// or https:// (like shop.com) is left in the text as it is, and can't be tapped in the Instagram Android app.
On instagram.com in a computer browser, customers see the message but not the button.
These buttons open your link directly, so Yapper does not count who opened them. In an announcement, only its own link button counts opens (see announcements).
What you see in the Inbox
The conversation shows the message as the customer got it: the text as it arrived, with the buttons under it. Clicking the button opens the link.
Messages that stay plain text
A message with more than 3 links, or longer than 640 characters, goes out as plain text with its links in it. Customers on the Instagram Android app can't tap those links, so keep a message with a link short and give it at most 3 links.
WhatsApp, Messenger, web chat and email messages are not changed: their links are sent in the text and can be tapped there.