Reels and Posts

What it is

ZeroChats isn’t limited to DMs: it also manages comments on your Instagram Reels and Posts. It can reply to the comment publicly and, on top of that, open a private DM so the AI agent can continue from there.

Public comment with a keyword → random public reply + private DM with the content.

Where to configure it

In the business menu this screen is called CTAs and has two tabs:

• Posts and Reels — everything about comments on publications, which is what this page covers.
• Stories — the story CTAs, for when someone replies to a story with a keyword.

How to configure it

In the Posts and Reels tab, the On comment block holds two main toggles, which apply to every publication:

Toggle	What it does
Auto-reply to comments	Posts a public reply to the comment, picked at random from the replies you have configured.
Message privately even without a keyword match	After the public reply, ZeroChats opens a DM with whoever commented so the AI can continue the conversation, even if the comment didn’t match any keyword.

The AI can open the DM even if they never wrote to you

When the AI is the one opening the conversation after a comment, its message goes out linked to that comment, so it also reaches someone who had never written to you privately. Everything the AI has to say travels in a single message, with the contents behind it; from there, you need the lead to reply before you can write to them again.

A comment that triggers nothing creates no lead

If the comment doesn’t match any keyword and you don’t have the second toggle enabled, ZeroChats does nothing with it: it doesn’t reply and it doesn’t create a lead in your CRM for that person either. They only enter the CRM when their comment triggers a reply or when they write to you by DM.

Leads that come from comments don’t use credits

A lead who comes in by commenting on your reels or posts, or by replying to one of your posts, is not charged: it doesn’t use any credit from your plan. More details in Credits, plans and subscription.

Comment reply

Configure a list of short replies. Each time a comment arrives on one of your reels or posts that triggers the public reply, ZeroChats picks one at random from the list.

Recommendation

Use messages that thank the comment and let the user know you’ve messaged them privately. Avoid identical repeated texts: varying the replies is what makes it feel human.

Keyword + Link delivery

When a comment matches a configured keyword, ZeroChats sends the associated reply by DM. If there’s a match, the AI agent’s DM reply is skipped — for the AI to pick the conversation back up, the lead will need to respond or you’ll need to have follow-ups active.

For each keyword you can define:

• Keyword and match type: Equals (exact match) or Contains (partial match).
• DM reply: the text the lead receives. It goes out as a single message, and any line breaks you write are kept as formatting inside it.
• Button with link (optional): deliver the resource as a tappable button instead of a bare URL inside the text.
• AI (optional): if you want the lead assigned to a specific agent. Defaults to the business AI.
• Publication (optional): choose One specific post or reel and pick it in the Publications grid to limit the keyword to that publication. If you leave Any post or reel, it applies to All posts.

The whole reply arrives in a single message

Instagram only lets you open the conversation with one message per comment. Before, if you wrote several lines, only the first one was guaranteed to arrive. Now the whole reply travels inside that single message: write as many lines as you need and all of them reach the lead, even if the person commenting has never written to you.

It is still one single send, so the conversation doesn’t continue until the lead replies.

How the comment is matched against the keyword

Matching is tolerant of the way people actually write in comments:

• Case and accents don’t matter: INFO, info and ínfo all count.

• Emojis, mentions and punctuation are ignored: INFO! 🔥 @youraccount still triggers INFO.

• Small typos are accepted on longer keywords: a letter changed, added or missing still activates the keyword. Short keywords have to match exactly, so they don’t fire on unrelated words.

• With the Equals type, the cleaned-up comment is compared: list! or LIST! 🙌 trigger the keyword list, but List please doesn’t, because it has more words.

• A comment with several keywords sends a single reply. One winning keyword is picked: first the one assigned to that publication, then Equals before Contains, and then the longest one.

This cuts down on comments that went unanswered because of an emoji or a typo. You don’t need to duplicate a keyword with and without accents or in capitals: menu already triggers on menú, MENU and Menú. All the rules, with examples, are in How a keyword is matched.

Deliver the resource as a button

Instead of pasting the URL inside the text, you can attach a button with link to the keyword. It’s two fields:

• Button link: the address it opens when tapped. It has to start with http:// or https://.
• Button text: the label the lead sees. Instagram cuts it at 20 characters.

Fill in both fields or leave both empty: a half-finished button won’t save.

The button travels on that same message, which is exactly the only one that reaches someone who has commented but never written to you.

Why use the button

A button reads better than a URL pasted into the text, and it keeps your account from piling up link-heavy messages sent to people who have never talked to you.

Comments on ads open the DM too

A comment on an ad or on a boosted publication is handled like one on a regular post: the keyword opens the DM and the link button arrives. These publications used to be left out, and it was easy to end up with a boosted campaign full of comments and no message delivered.

If Instagram refuses that first message in a particular case, ZeroChats tries it as a regular DM, which only reaches someone who already has a conversation open with you.

Typical case

Campaign example

You publish a reel with “Comment INFO to receive the free PDF”.

1. You create the keyword INFO (type Equals) pointing to that reel.
2. You associate the reply with the link to the PDF.
3. Anyone who comments “INFO” automatically receives the DM with the resource.
4. The conversation stays open in Discovering state and the AI takes over from there when the lead replies.

Using the same keyword on multiple publications

Is it possible to use two keywords with the same name for two different publications? For example, Post 1 has the keyword INFO and Post 2 also has INFO.

Yes, you can do it, as long as each keyword is assigned to a specific publication from the Publication field (One specific post or reel option).

If the keyword is created without assigning a specific publication (it stays on All posts), it won’t work when another one with the same name exists.

Requirement

If you’re going to reuse the same term across multiple posts, none of the keywords can stay on All posts. Each one has to point to a specific post or reel.

Story CTAs

The Stories tab covers what happens when someone replies to one of your Instagram stories with a keyword: the AI you pick takes over that conversation and follows the instruction you wrote.

Each story CTA has three fields:

Field	What it does
Keyword	The term the lead writes when replying to the story. E.g. info.
AI	The agent that takes the conversation from that point on.
What should the AI do?	The instruction that AI will follow. E.g. Send the price list and offer a call this week.

When you save, the instruction is added to the instructions of the agent you picked. If the keyword isn’t on your keyword list yet, it’s added and pointed at that AI. You can delete a CTA whenever you no longer need it.

To send a content item from a story CTA

Name the content in the instruction exactly as it appears in your Content library. For example: “send the Price list”. If the name doesn’t match, the AI won’t know which file you mean.

You need at least one AI

Story CTAs always point to an AI agent, so if you haven’t created one yet, create it first from AI Assistant.

Best practices

• Keep between 3 and 5 varied public replies so they don’t look like a template.
• For specific campaigns, always restrict the keyword to the campaign reel or post; that way it doesn’t fire replies on old publications.
• If the comment doesn’t match any keyword and you want the AI to keep managing the lead, also enable Message privately even without a keyword match.

If the content doesn’t arrive by DM

If the lead comments a valid keyword but doesn’t receive the private message, it’s usually due to one of these causes:

• The lead doesn’t allow messages from your account (their Instagram privacy blocks it).
• You have ManyChat active and it’s intercepting the comment before ZeroChats. Run only one of the two automations per publication.
• Meta failed to deliver the DM. It’s an intermittent failure on Meta’s side (it also happens with ManyChat). If it’s a one-off, nothing needs changing; if it repeats, check the Instagram connection status.