What are Instagram message requests?
Instagram message requests are a separate folder where first messages from people you do not follow usually land, instead of your main inbox.
Also called: Message requests folder.
In plain words
Instagram keeps your main inbox for people you already know. When someone you do not follow writes for the first time, their message often goes to message requests. You see it, but they do not know you have read it until you reply or accept.
For a business, this folder matters. Many first messages from new customers sit there: a question about a price, a booking request, or someone asking if an item is still available. If nobody checks it, those customers wait, and often buy elsewhere.
Replying usually moves the conversation into your main inbox. From then on it behaves like any other chat.
A simple habit fixes most missed messages: check both the main inbox and message requests every day, or ask whoever answers your messages to do it.
A simple habit fixes most missed messages: check both the main inbox and message requests every day, or ask whoever answers your messages to do it. When you reply to an older request, a short apology for the wait goes a long way, and the customer is often still happy to book or buy.
How it works in Spaces
When your AI agent reads your Instagram DMs through Spaces, ask it to check message requests as well as the main inbox, so first messages from new customers are not left waiting.
Instagram only lets you message someone who has not replied inside its messaging window, so replies in existing chats work best. Spaces paces Instagram at 15 seconds between messages, at most 80 messages and 20 new chats a day, with a warm-up for new connections.
Related terms
- Comment-to-DM: Comment-to-DM is answering a comment on your post with a private message to the person who wrote it, so details such as prices or bookings move out of public view.
- 24-hour window: The 24-hour window is the period after a customer's last message in which a business on the WhatsApp Business Platform can send free-form replies; after it closes, only approved templates can be sent until the customer writes again.
- New conversation: A new conversation is a message you send to someone who has not written to you in that chat yet, as opposed to a reply in a conversation the other person started.
- Connected account: A connected account is one of your own messaging accounts, such as your WhatsApp number or Instagram profile, that you have linked to a service so an AI agent can read and reply to its conversations.
FAQ
Why did a customer's message go to requests?
Usually because you do not follow them, so Instagram treats it as a first message from someone new.
Does the sender know I read a request?
Not until you reply or accept it.
Can my AI agent answer message requests?
Ask it to check message requests as well as the main inbox, so new customers are not missed.
What happens after I reply?
The conversation usually moves to your main inbox and works like any other chat.
Do Instagram limits apply to these replies?
Yes. Every message follows the Instagram pacing and daily limits in Spaces.
Useful next: Instagram limits, Instagram API, How to automate Instagram DMs. Every term: the glossary.