Integration with Instagram

In this article, you'll learn:

• The benefits of the Tidio integration with Instagram
• The requirements to integrate 
• How to set your account to Instagram Business
• How to connect an Instagram account with a Facebook Page
• How to allow access to messages
• How to integrate Tidio with Instagram
• How to enable different types of communication
• How to troubleshoot common integration issues

Benefits 

Tidio integration with Instagram has many benefits that can improve the way you operate your business communication. Take a look at just a few of them. 

Handle all conversations in one place

Now, you and your team can handle all strategic communication in just one Tidio panel. You can connect more than one Instagram account with your Tidio project.

See the Instagram story activities

 You can see the replies, mentions, and reactions added to your Instagram story in your Tidio panel.

Automate your support on Instagram with Tidio's flows

 You can set up flows to handle communication with your Instagram audience for you. 

Easy to integrate

The integration with Instagram doesn't require any coding, and it takes less than 2 minutes to set up.

Instagram integration requirements

Set your account to Instagram Business

To connect Tidio to Instagram, you'll need to make sure your account is a Business Instagram Account. Do you have a standard Instagram account? Don't worry! It takes only two minutes to change it to the Business version. 

To see how to switch your Instagram account to a Business Account - take a look at the official Instagram guide on setting up the Business Account. Please, make sure you've chosen the business account and not the creator account. At this moment, the creator account doesn't support the integration.

Connect your Instagram account with a Facebook Page

Since Instagram is part of Facebook now, your Instagram account needs to be connected to your Facebook Page. To see how to connect Instagram to Facebook, take a look at an official Instagram guide.

Allow access to messages

You'll also need to ensure your Instagram account allows Tidio to receive the messages. To do that, open your Instagram app and head over to Settings and activity by clicking the menu icon at the top-right.

After that, head to Messages and story replies:

... then open Message controls - and make sure the Allow access to messages toggle is enabled:

Integrate Tidio with Instagram 

Before you connect Tidio to Instagram, make sure you meet all the requirements to integrate with Instagram (see above).  

To connect Instagram to Tidio, head to Settings > Channels > Instagram section and click on the blue button - Integrate Instagram.

You'll now see a window that will remind you about all requirements.

After receiving the tips on the requirements, you'll see a new popup window asking you to login in with Facebook. 

The integration will ask you to choose your Instagram Business Account:

It will also ask you to pick your Facebook Page:

The last step will ask you for permissions so the integration can be completed. 

You've connected your Instagram with Tidio! Now, you will start receiving Instagram and Facebook messages. Note: you can connect more than one Instagram account with your Tidio project.

Enabling the types of communication

After successful integration with Instagram, you'll be able to choose which types of Instagram communications you want to see in Tidio and which accounts you want to manage. To do that, head over to the Settings > Instagram section and use the toggles to activate different accounts and the checkbox next to the following types of notifications to enable them:

• Story Mentions
• Story Replies
• Direct Messages (always transferred, can't be disabled)

Troubleshooting common integration issues

A common issue is seeing the integration's loading screen, and nothing else happening. This usually happens because your browser has blocked an important popup window from Tidio; that popup is required for you to log into Meta in order to complete the integration.

To solve this particular issue, disable your browser's block for the current website (the Tidio panel in this case). As an example from Chrome, you can see the pop-up blocked notification in the upper-right of the browser window -  that is also where you can allow the popups back again:

To try again, you may need to refresh your page; the popup should not be blocked any longer.

FAQ

How will I know that the message comes from the Instagram channel?

You'll see an Instagram icon next to the message inside your live conversations panel. The typing panel will also automatically change into the Instagram channel so you can right-away answer to the correct channel. 

I can't find the "Allow access to messages" toggle in my Instagram account. How do I find it?

The option to allow access to messages in Instagram will be only showed to you when you have Instagram Business Account enabled and connected to your FB fanpage. The toggle will not be displayed for the users with the private/standard Instagram account. 

Next steps:

• Create Instagram flows - free your operators from answering repetitive questions and generate more sales and leads.
• Discover more integrations - see all seamless integrations Tidio offers to automate your business even more.