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Use Yapper alongside ManyChat on Instagram

Follow these five steps to use Yapper alongside ManyChat or a similar tool on Instagram.

What you'll have when you're done

The goal is for customers to reply to your ManyChat welcome and get an answer from Yapper in the same Instagram chat. Test each welcome you use: a successful comment or story welcome does not establish that new-follower welcomes work with the same setup.

The symptom

A customer receives a ManyChat welcome, replies, and your assistant doesn't answer. The conversation is escalated to you in the Inbox, saying another tool controls it. Replies sent from Yapper are blocked in that conversation too.

This happens when Instagram has a default app for conversations. Instagram then gives each conversation to one tool at a time. A ManyChat welcome makes ManyChat the owner, and Instagram refuses replies from any other tool, including Yapper.

Before you start

Have these ready:

• Access to ManyChat and Yapper.
• Administrator access to the Facebook Page linked to your Instagram, if you have one.
• An Instagram account that has never messaged your business, for the final test.

1. Remove Instagram's default app

With no default app, every connected tool receives each message and can reply.

1. On Facebook, switch to the Facebook Page linked to your Instagram account.
2. Go to Settings → Page setup → Instagram conversation routing.
3. If ManyChat or another app is listed as the default app, open its ⋯ menu and remove it.

Check: Only the Set up button remains, with no default app listed.

If your Instagram account isn't linked to a Facebook Page, this screen doesn't exist and there's no default app to remove.

2. Check how ManyChat is connected

If you use Follow to DM for new followers, keep your current ManyChat connection. ManyChat requires its Via Meta connection through Unified Instagram onboarding for this feature. Reconnecting through Instagram can make the feature unavailable. Test the routing change with your current connection first; if Yapper still cannot reply, contact support before reconnecting. The reconnect instructions below apply to setups that do not depend on Follow to DM.

In ManyChat, open Settings → Instagram and scroll to the bottom.

• If you see Connect through Meta, ManyChat is already connected through Instagram. Leave it as it is and continue to step 3.
• If you don't see it, remove the Instagram account from ManyChat, then connect it again choosing Instagram.

Before reconnecting: This empties ManyChat's Instagram contact list, including tags and custom fields. If you need to keep that information, contact support for help before removing the account.

Check: The Connect through Meta option is visible. Leave that option alone.

3. Give each tool its part of the conversation

Turn off ManyChat's Instagram Default Reply. Otherwise ManyChat and your assistant both answer ordinary messages.

Keep your ManyChat welcomes, new-follower messages, story replies and keyword or comment automations. Let each send its message and finish, leaving the customer's replies to Yapper.

With no default app, both tools see every message. Don't set up the same keyword, or a Comment Trigger on the same post, in ManyChat and in Yapper, or the customer gets two answers. See comment-to-dm for Yapper's Comment Triggers.

ManyChat's welcome appears in the customer's conversation in Yapper, so your assistant knows what was already sent. If your playbook greets new customers, tell it that a welcome has already gone out.

Check: ManyChat's Default Reply is off, and your welcome automations are still on.

4. Update ManyChat's permissions

In ManyChat's Instagram settings, click Update permissions and complete the permissions window.

Return to Facebook's Instagram conversation routing screen from step 1.

Check: There is still no default app listed.

5. Try the full conversation

1. From an Instagram account that has never messaged you, trigger the ManyChat welcome.
2. Reply with ordinary text. Your assistant should answer, and ManyChat shouldn't.

Use a new account for each test, because ManyChat sends its welcome only once per person.

Check: You receive the ManyChat welcome, then a Yapper answer to your reply. The conversation in Yapper's Inbox has no warning that another tool controls it.

Conversations escalated before the change

Conversations escalated because another tool controlled them stay paused. Open each one in the Inbox and turn Auto-reply back on. Your assistant answers the customer's next message.

Keep the setup working

Leave Instagram's default app setting empty, even if another tool or guide asks you to select one. Leave ManyChat's Connect through Meta option alone.

If a screen doesn't match these instructions or the test doesn't work, contact support with screenshots of ManyChat's Instagram settings and Facebook's Instagram conversation routing screen.