Follow up in Direct after the AI agent replies

How to message someone after an hour of silence following the AI agent's reply, and again closer to the next day — only while Instagram allows it, and cancelled if the person replies.

The AI agent answers a question and the person goes quiet. To keep them, build a funnel that starts “After AI agent reply”: it waits, follows up on its own and stops if the person replies or you step in yourself.

How to build it#

1. In Automations, create an Instagram funnel.
2. Open the start card and choose “After AI agent reply”. No keywords are needed.
3. If you don't want a follow-up after short replies like “Hello!”, set a minimum agent reply length — for example, 40 characters.
4. Make the first step a 60-minute Delay, followed by the follow-up message.
5. For a second touch, add another delay and a message. In the delay settings, tick “Send before the window closes” and set a margin, say 60 minutes: the message will go out no later than an hour before Instagram closes the conversation.
6. In the same delay, turn on “Separate branch if the window is closed” and put “Send a notification” or “Hand off to a human” on the red exit — that's your task for a team member instead of a message to the client.
7. Check the funnel and turn it on. The AI agent must be on too.

When the funnel starts#

• After every AI agent reply in Direct. A new agent reply restarts the funnel and cancels the previous wait — a conversation always has one timer, counted from the latest reply.
• Only from a Direct conversation. A comment reply never starts it: the agent only replies in Direct, and only to people who wrote first.
• If the agent hands the person over to you (a hot lead, or they asked for a human), the funnel doesn't start and any follow-ups already running are cancelled.

When a follow-up cancels itself#

In an “After AI agent reply” funnel, the wait is cancelled if, after it started:

• the person sent anything: text, a photo, a video, a voice message or tapped a button;
• you replied yourself — from the Instagram app or from Conversations;
• the bot was paused in Conversations, or “Hand off to a human” ran;
• the person paid through a link from this funnel;
• the contact got a stop tag (see below).

When the person replies, the AI agent answers again and the countdown restarts from that new reply.

💡 In regular Instagram funnels you can turn this on with a tick in the delay: “Cancel if the person writes or you reply yourself”.

The 24-hour window#

Instagram lets you message a person for 24 hours after their last message. Your messages, funnel messages and AI agent replies don't extend that time.

Craft checks the window before every send, using the time of the person's last message. If the window is closed, the message isn't sent and isn't retried.

• “Send before the window closes” shortens the wait: for example, a 22-hour delay with a 60-minute margin, for someone who last wrote 3 hours ago, becomes 20 hours.
• If there's no time left, the message isn't sent and the person goes down the “Window closed” branch, if you added one.
• The “Window closed” branch also runs when Instagram rejects the message for any other reason. The reason shows up in the funnel's delivery errors.

Declines and orders#

• If the client declined (“not needed”, “changed my mind”), says they already ordered or paid, or the conversation simply ended, the AI agent recognizes it: it replies, but doesn't schedule a follow-up and cancels one already running.
• The start card has a “Don’t follow up contacts with tags” field — for example, “declined” and “ordered”. With such a tag the funnel doesn't start, and a tag added while waiting cancels the follow-up. Tags are added by the funnel's “Add tag” action — for example, on a “Place an order” button.

What's not possible, and why#

• Messaging after the window closes isn't allowed: Instagram's rules forbid automated messages more than 24 hours after the person's last message. Breaking this risks account restrictions, so Craft doesn't send them — the “Window closed” branch runs instead.