Instagram Primary and General tabs: how to sort business DMs
Professional Instagram accounts split DMs into a Primary tab and a General tab, with message requests kept separately. Primary is meant for the conversations you care about most, and General for everything else. The catch is that General is easy to forget, and on many accounts it does not send notifications by default, so real customer messages can sit there unread for days. This guide explains how the tabs work, how to set them up for a business, and how an AI agent fits so nothing gets missed.
What the tabs are
If your Instagram is a business or creator account, your messages are split into places. The names have stayed fairly stable, though Instagram changes the layout from time to time.
| Place | What usually goes there | Notifications |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Chats you have moved there, and often people you follow or have talked to | On, by default |
| General | Chats you have moved there, and some accepted requests | Often off by default, and can be turned on in settings |
| Requests | Messages from people you are not connected with, until you accept them | Depends on your settings |
The tabs are only a way of sorting chats in the Instagram app. Moving a chat between Primary and General does not tell the customer anything and does not change the conversation.
Why customers get lost in General
General was designed for creators with thousands of messages, so they could keep friends and collaborators in Primary and look at everything else later. For a small business, "everything else" is often your customers.
A typical story: the owner accepts a few message requests in a hurry and they land in General. Because General does not notify, nobody looks there for a week. The customers think they were ignored. Our guide on message requests covers the step before this one, when a message has not even been accepted yet.
A simple set-up for a business
Most small businesses do best with one clear rule: customers go in Primary, everything else goes in General.
- Open your DMs and look through General. Move any customer chats into Primary.
- In your message settings, check where accepted requests should go, and choose Primary if you can.
- Turn on notifications for General too, at least until you are sure nothing important lands there.
- Move suppliers, collaborators, friends and press into General, so Primary is customers only.
- Check General once a day, at a set time, such as before you close.
- Check message requests at the same time.
If your team uses Meta Business Suite to answer Instagram messages, the inbox there may look a little different, but the same idea applies: decide which view is "customers" and make sure someone checks it.
How an AI agent fits
Your AI agent works with the conversations themselves, not with the tabs. When it lists chats through Spaces, it can filter to unread or unanswered chats, and to message requests, so a customer message is not missed just because it sits in General in the app.
For sorting, Spaces has its own tags and owners. The agent can tag a chat as an order, a booking or a complaint, give it to someone on your team, or star it. Tagging and assigning send nothing to the customer. That is often more useful than Primary and General, because it says what a chat is about, not just how important it seemed.
| Instagram app | Spaces, through your agent |
|---|---|
| Primary and General tabs | Tags such as lead, order, booking or follow up |
| Requests | A filter for message requests when listing chats |
| Unread dot | Filters for unread and unanswered chats |
| Nothing built in | An owner for each chat, and hand-over to a person |
Reading chats this way is light on the platform. Spaces answers from its own copy of your conversations, kept up to date as messages arrive, and only asks Instagram for what it does not hold yet.
A worked example
A tattoo studio owner asks their agent for a quick end-of-day check. Names and details are examples.
| Who | Message |
|---|---|
| Owner (to the AI agent) | Anything on Instagram I have not answered today? |
| AI agent | Three chats. Leah asked about a small wrist piece and whether you have anything in March, which I tagged as a booking. Marco from the supply company sent an invoice question, tagged as a supplier. And there is one message request from a new account asking about a cover-up. Would you like me to answer Leah with your March dates? |
| Owner | Yes, offer the 12th or 19th. Leave Marco, I will call him. Accept the cover-up one in the app and I will answer it myself. |
| AI agent | Done. Leah has the 12th and 19th. Marco is assigned to you. I have left the cover-up request for you. |
The owner never had to open General or Requests in the app to know what was waiting. The agent found the unanswered chats and sorted them by what they were.
Replies are the safe part
Answering people who wrote to you is the lowest-risk thing your agent does on Instagram, wherever their message sat. Spaces still paces every reply and keeps the account inside these limits:
| Action | Spaces limit per account |
|---|---|
| Messages | Up to 150 a day, at least 15 seconds apart |
| New conversations | 10 an hour, 100 a day |
| Likes, comments, follows, posts, new conversations, profile views and looking at posts together | 10 an hour and 100 a day, writes at least 30 seconds apart at random |
| Replies to people who wrote in | no daily limit, at least 15 seconds apart |
| Reading your conversations | no daily limit, a random 6 to 15 seconds apart and at most 120 an hour. Messages Spaces already holds are read without asking Instagram at all |
| Comments | up to 10 an hour and 100 a day, shared with likes, follows and new conversations |
| Posts | 1 an hour, 3 a day |
| A new or just reconnected account starts at 22 likes, comments, follows, views and new conversations a day, and builds up to 100 over four week | new or just reconnected account starts at 22 likes, comments, follows, views and new conversations a day, and builds up to 100 over four weeks |
| If Instagram pushes back, Spaces rests the account for a while and tells you, so it can recove | f Instagram pushes back, Spaces rests the account for a while and tells you, so it can recover |
This is published provider guidance, written in our own words and last updated on 28 Aug 2026. It is advice, not a promise from the platform, and the platform can change what it watches for at any time.
- At most about 100 actions a day and 10 an hour, especially for outreach, follows, likes and comments.
- Replying to everyone who messages you is fine, just as it is in the app.
- Start new or quiet accounts lower and build up over time.
- Spread actions out at random times during working hours instead of at regular intervals.
Notes to give your AI agent
Sorting our Instagram DMs:
- Twice a day, list unanswered chats and message requests.
- Tag each chat: booking, question, order, supplier, or complaint.
- Answer bookings and questions from our facts.
- Assign supplier chats to me and do not answer them.
- Hand complaints to me.
- For message requests, tell me who they are from and what they want. Do not answer requests from accounts that look like spam.
- Respect the wait time Spaces gives you before checking again.Common mistakes
- Leaving General notifications off and never opening the tab.
- Accepting message requests into General without realising it.
- Using Primary for friends and General for customers, which is the wrong way round for a business.
- Moving chats around by hand every day instead of having one simple rule.
- Asking the agent to check for new messages every minute. Spaces tells it how long to wait, and checking faster does not help.
What if...
- What if I do not see a General tab? It is a feature of professional accounts. Personal accounts sort messages differently. Our guide on personal and business accounts explains the difference.
- What if the tabs look different in Meta Business Suite? Use whichever view your team works in, and make sure customer chats have one clear home.
- What if a customer says they messaged and we never saw it? Check General and Requests first, then hidden requests if your account filters them.
Who you message
In short
Primary and General are a simple sorting tool in the Instagram app. For a business, put customers in Primary, check General and Requests once a day, and turn on notifications until you are confident nothing important hides there.
An AI agent connected through Spaces does not depend on the tabs. It looks for unread and unanswered chats and message requests directly, and sorts them with tags and owners that describe what each chat is about.
Pricing
FAQ
What is the General tab in Instagram DMs?
It is a second inbox tab on professional accounts, next to Primary. It was designed for less important conversations, and on many accounts it does not send notifications by default.
Why did a customer message go to General?
Chats can land in General when you accept a request into it, or when someone moves the chat there. Check your message settings to see where accepted requests go.
Does the customer know which tab their message is in?
No. The tabs are only a way of sorting chats in your app. Moving a chat between Primary and General does not tell the customer anything.
Can I get notifications for General messages?
Yes, in your Instagram notification settings for messages. Turning them on is a good idea for a business, at least until you are sure customers never land there.
Can my AI agent see chats in General?
The agent works with your conversations rather than the tabs. Through Spaces it can list unread and unanswered chats and message requests, so a message sitting in General is not missed.
Can my agent move chats between Primary and General?
Sort chats with Spaces tags and owners instead. They describe what a chat is about and who should handle it, and they send nothing to the customer.
Do personal accounts have Primary and General?
No. The tabs are a feature of professional accounts, which are business or creator accounts. Personal accounts sort messages more simply.
How often should a business check General and Requests?
At least once a day, at a set time. If an AI agent checks for you, ask it for a short summary of anything unanswered at the end of each day.