Prerequisites: You need a business Instagram account or a Facebook Page to connect. Set up your accounts in Settings > Social before using the inbox.
Connect Your Accounts
Go to Settings > Social to connect Instagram and Facebook accounts.Connect Instagram
Click Connect Instagram
On the Connected Accounts tab, click the Connect Instagram button. A login window opens.
Log In and Authorize
Sign in to your Instagram business account and grant Decoda permission to read and send messages.
Connect Facebook / Messenger
Select Pages
A page picker shows your Facebook Pages and any linked Instagram accounts. Check the ones you want to connect — already-connected accounts are marked as Connected and cannot be re-added.
Disconnect an Account
Click Disconnect next to any connected account. A confirmation prompt appears — confirming stops all message delivery for that account.Using the Inbox
Open the Social Inbox from Comms > Social in the main navigation.Conversation List
The left sidebar shows all conversations across your connected accounts. Each conversation displays the contact’s name, a preview of the latest message, and a timestamp.- Unread conversations appear in bold text.
- If you have multiple accounts connected, use the account filter at the top to show conversations from a specific account or All accounts.
- Click the sync button (circular arrow icon) to manually pull the latest messages.
Syncing pulls the last 20 messages per conversation. Messages received in real time always have full content, but older synced messages from Instagram may have limited media content.
Reading and Replying
Click a conversation to open the message thread. Messages are grouped by sender and spaced with time separators when there is a gap of more than 5 minutes. The composer at the bottom of the thread lets you:- Type a message and press Enter to send (Shift+Enter for a new line).
- Attach a file using the paperclip icon. Instagram accepts images and videos. Messenger also accepts audio, PDFs, and documents.
- Add an emoji using the smiley face icon next to the text input.
24-Hour Reply Window
Instagram and Messenger require businesses to reply within 24 hours of the customer’s last message. Each new inbound message resets the window.- A countdown timer appears in the conversation header showing the time remaining (e.g., “3h 45m left to reply”).
- When less than 2 hours remain, the timer turns to a warning color.
- When the window expires, the composer is replaced with the message: “The 24-hour reply window has expired. You can respond once the customer sends a new message.”
Replying to a Specific Message
Replies to specific messages are only available on Messenger. Instagram does not support this for business accounts.
Reactions
Hover over any message and click the react icon (smiley face) to send an emoji reaction. Selecting an emoji you have already reacted with removes it. You can only have one active reaction per message — sending a new emoji replaces the previous one. Reactions appear as small pills below the message bubble.Message Types
The inbox displays different message types with appropriate formatting:| Type | How It Appears |
|---|---|
| Text | Standard message bubble |
| Image | Inline image preview — click to open a fullscreen viewer with zoom and pan |
| Video | Inline video player with controls |
| Audio | Inline audio player (Messenger only) |
| File | A downloadable file link |
| Sticker / GIF | Displayed without a message bubble background |
| Shared post or reel | Media card with a View on Instagram link when available |
| Story reply | Shows “Replied to your story” with a story thumbnail and the reply text |
| Story mention | Shows “Mentioned you in their story” with a thumbnail |
| Deleted message | Italic text: “This message was unsent” |
Media from older synced messages may expire over time. When media is no longer available, a placeholder reading “Media is no longer available” appears in its place.
Patient Linking
Link conversations to patient records so your team can see who they are messaging. Patient linking is available in two places:From the Inbox
When you open a conversation, the header shows a Link patient button (or the linked patient’s name if already linked). Click Link patient to search for and select an existing patient. Click Unlink to remove the link.From Settings
Go to Settings > Social > Patient Linking to see a table of all conversations with their linked patient status. From here you can link or unlink patients in bulk without opening each conversation.| Column | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Contact | The contact’s name and avatar |
| Channel | Instagram or Messenger |
| Linked Patient | The linked patient’s name, or “Not linked” |
| Action | Link patient or Unlink |
Only existing patients can be linked to conversations. To link a new patient, create their record first under Patients, then return here to link them.
Instagram vs. Messenger Differences
| Feature | Messenger | |
|---|---|---|
| Reply to a specific message | Not available | Available |
| File attachments you can send | Images, videos | Images, videos, audio, PDFs, documents |
| Shared post/reel links | Links to Instagram | N/A |
| Reactions | Available | Available |
| 24-hour reply window | Yes | Yes |
Advanced Configuration
Permissions
Permissions
Social inbox settings use the Settings Social Read / Write permission pair. Users need the Read permission to view the settings page and the Write permission to connect, disconnect, and link accounts. The inbox itself is accessible to users with communication permissions.