Instagram's professional dashboard: the settings that matter for your DMs
Switch an Instagram account to a professional account and you get a professional dashboard: a home for insights, tools and settings that personal accounts do not have. Most of it is about posts and reach, but a handful of settings decide who can message you, what they see when they open a chat and how quickly you can answer. This guide walks through those settings in plain English, suggests how to set each one before an AI agent starts answering, and explains what the dashboard can and cannot tell you about your DMs.
What the professional dashboard is
The professional dashboard is the control room for Business and Creator accounts. You usually reach it from a button on your own profile. It gathers your insights, such as reach and how many accounts engaged with your content, along with tools for ads, branded content and growing your account, and shortcuts to business settings.
For DMs, the dashboard itself is mostly a doorway. The settings that matter are in your account settings under messages and business or creator tools, and some are reached from the dashboard's tools section. Menu names and positions change between app versions and phones, so if something looks different on yours, look for the nearest match or check the platform's own help pages, which are always more current than any guide.
The settings that shape your DMs
| Setting | What it does | A sensible starting point |
|---|---|---|
| Message controls | Decides who can message you and whether their messages land in your main inbox or in message requests. | Let everyone message you, so new customers can reach you, and check requests every day. |
| Frequently asked questions | Shows a few tappable questions when someone opens a chat with you for the first time. | Three or four real questions customers ask, such as prices, booking and delivery. |
| Saved replies | Short answers you insert with a shortcut while typing. | Keep a few for the questions you answer by hand. Your agent works from its notes instead. |
| Contact options | Buttons on your profile such as Message, Email or Call, and sometimes a WhatsApp link. | Show the ways you actually answer. Remove a button nobody checks. |
| Story replies | Whether people can reply to your stories by DM. | On for most businesses, because story replies are warm conversations. |
| Connected tools | Links to Meta Business Suite and a Facebook Page, where your team may also answer. | Decide where your team works, so customer chats have one clear home. |
Message requests and the Primary and General tabs are covered in our separate guides. Here the aim is to get the business settings right before an agent starts working in the inbox.
A 20-minute set-up before you connect an AI agent
- Open your profile, then the professional dashboard, and check the account is a Business or Creator account with the right category and contact details.
- Open your message settings and check who can message you. Make sure new customers are not being pushed somewhere nobody looks.
- Add three or four frequently asked questions in the words customers use.
- Look at your saved replies. Delete old ones with wrong prices, and copy the good ones into your agent's notes.
- Check the contact buttons on your profile. Each one should lead somewhere a person or your agent answers.
- Make sure story replies are on, unless you have a good reason to turn them off.
- Turn on two-step verification in Accounts Centre before connecting. Spaces' set-up asks you to do this first for Instagram.
Writing FAQs your agent can follow up
When a customer taps one of your frequently asked questions, that question is sent into the chat as their first message. Instagram can show an automatic answer you set, but often the more useful thing is what happens next: someone, or your agent, picks up the conversation. Write questions that lead to a good second message.
Good FAQ questions:
- "How much is a cut and colour?"
- "Can I book for this week?"
- "Do you deliver to my area?"
- "Do you have gift cards?"
Weaker ones:
- "Hi!" (says nothing about what they want)
- "Tell me more" (too vague to answer well)
- "Prices" (better as a full question)Then give your agent the matching answers in its notes, with the follow-up question it should ask each time. That way a tap on "Can I book for this week?" gets a real answer with times, not a generic welcome.
A worked example
Names and details are examples.
| Who | Message |
|---|---|
| Customer | Can I book for this week? [tapped from your FAQs] |
| AI agent | Hi Maya, thanks for getting in touch. This week we have Thursday at 11:00 or 15:30 and Saturday at 10:00. What would you like to book, and which time suits you? |
| Customer | Gel nails, Saturday please |
| AI agent | Saturday at 10:00 for gel nails, lovely. It takes about an hour and is £32. Could you send your name and mobile number so Leah can confirm it in the diary? |
The FAQ did the opening, and the agent did the rest from facts in its notes. If your agent books into a diary, that happens through the agent's own tools. Spaces handles the Instagram side: reading and replying safely.
What the dashboard numbers can tell you about DMs
The insights in the professional dashboard are mostly about content: reach, views, accounts engaged, interactions and follows. They help you see which posts make people curious, which is useful because curiosity turns into DMs. They are less useful for judging how well you answer messages.
For that, a simple hand count works well. Once a week, note how many new conversations came in, how many got a reply within an hour and how many turned into a booking or an order. Our guide to measuring AI replies has a template.
Spaces can also read some numbers for your agent. With the usual Instagram sign-in, the agent sees like and comment counts on your posts. Spaces is also switching on a second way to connect Business and Creator accounts, through Meta's business sign-in. Where an account is connected that way, the agent can read account insights such as reach, views and accounts engaged, and post insights for your own posts.
How the limits fit
You sign in to Instagram through a secure link and approve the connection. Replies to people who message you are the safest thing an Instagram account can do, and Spaces treats them that way. Replies to people who wrote in: no daily limit, at least 15 seconds apart.
Everything that reaches out, such as starting new conversations, liking and commenting, shares one careful budget of 10 an hour and 100 a day once the warm-up is over. A new or reconnected account starts lower and builds up over four weeks.
| Since connecting | New conversations an hour | New conversations a day |
|---|---|---|
| First 3 days | 2 | 22 |
| Rest of week 1 | 4 | 40 |
| Week 2 | 6 | 60 |
| Weeks 3 and 4 | 8 | 85 |
| After that | 10 | 100 |
Notes to give your AI agent
Instagram DMs:
- Our FAQs are: prices, booking this week, gift cards, parking. Answer each with the facts below and one follow-up question.
- Check message requests every time you check the inbox. Reply to genuine customers there.
- Story replies are warm. Thank them for the reply, then answer what they asked.
- Our profile buttons are Message and Email. We do not take calls, so never offer one.
- Hand any complaint, refund or allergy question to Leah.
- If Spaces says to wait, wait.Common mistakes
- Leaving message controls on a setting that sends new customers to a folder nobody opens.
- FAQs that are greetings rather than questions, so the agent has nothing to answer.
- Old saved replies with last year's prices, used by a team member on a busy day.
- A Call button on the profile when nobody answers the phone.
- Judging DM performance by reach. Count replies and bookings instead.
- Switching between Business and Creator accounts on a whim. Some settings and connected tools behave differently, so decide once.
What if...
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| You cannot find the professional dashboard | Check the account is a professional account. Personal accounts do not have one. |
| FAQs do not appear for some customers | They usually show only in a first chat, and not on every version of the app. Your agent still answers whatever the customer types. |
| Your team answers in Meta Business Suite as well | Fine. Hand a chat to a person when they take it, so the agent stays out of that conversation. |
| You want the agent to stop while you change settings | Pause all sending in your dashboard. Reading keeps working. |
| What your agent is told | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| AGENT_PAUSED | You paused the agent or this conversation, or paused all sending for the workspace. The message says which, and why. A paused AI agent is refused everything, reads included, with a 403. | Turn it back on where you paused it when you are ready. After a workspace pause, choose Resume sending in Settings in your dashboard, or ask your AI agent to resume: scheduled messages and automations carry on by themselves. |
Who you message
Summing up
The professional dashboard is mostly about content, but a few business settings around it decide how your DMs work: who can message you, what they see first, which buttons lead to a conversation and where your team answers. Spend twenty minutes on those before an AI agent starts, write FAQs that lead somewhere, copy your good saved replies into the agent's notes, and measure success by replies and bookings rather than reach.
Pricing
FAQ
What is the Instagram professional dashboard?
It is the hub for Business and Creator accounts, with insights, tools for growth and ads, and shortcuts to business settings. Personal accounts do not have it.
Which settings affect my Instagram DMs?
Mainly message controls, frequently asked questions, saved replies, contact buttons, story replies and any connected tools such as Meta Business Suite. Menu names change, so look for the nearest match on your phone.
Do I need a professional account to use an AI agent on Instagram?
Not with the usual sign-in, which works with any account. A professional account gives you the business tools in this guide, and the second way to connect that Spaces is switching on is for Business and Creator accounts.
Should I use Instagram's FAQs if I have an AI agent?
Yes. They help customers start with a clear question, which makes the agent's first answer better. Give the agent a matching answer for each one.
Can my AI agent read my Instagram insights?
With the usual sign-in it sees like and comment counts on posts. Where an account is connected through Meta's business sign-in, it can also read account and post insights such as reach and views.
Where do messages from people I do not follow go?
Often to message requests, depending on your message controls. Check them every day, and tell your agent to check them too, because new customers often land there.
Will changing these settings affect my limits in Spaces?
No. Spaces' limits depend on what the account sends, not on these settings. Replies to people who wrote in are always the safest thing to send.
Should I choose a Business or a Creator account?
Most shops and service businesses pick Business, and most individuals who publish content pick Creator. Both have the professional dashboard, so choose the one that fits and stick with it.