Inbox
The inbox is the private messages that people send to your Facebook Page on Messenger and to the Instagram account linked to that Page. You can list the conversations, read one and reply to it.
It is off by default. The first section is for the administrator; the rest is for everyone.
Switching messages on
Messages are a person's private words, and often their contact details. Read the privacy page on namasoft.com and your own privacy policy before you switch this on.
- In your Meta app, add the three messaging permissions. Meta app lists them under Messages.
- Open Meta app.
- Under Messages, tick Read and answer messages, and ask for the messaging permissions when people connect.
- Press Save.
- Everyone who was already connected reconnects on Meta connection to grant the new permissions.
While the switch is off, every inbox request is refused for everyone, even for a connection that was granted the permissions earlier.
Meta decides who a reply reaches
Each of the three permissions needs Advanced Access, which Meta grants through App Review. You apply for it with your own app. Until Meta grants it, a reply reaches only people who have a role on the app. Asking for a permission that the app does not have makes signing in fail for everyone, so leave the switch off until the app has the permissions.
For Instagram there is one more step, done by the owner of the Instagram account in the Instagram app: switch on Allow access to messages (Settings, Messages and story replies, Message controls, Connected tools).
See Connect Meta.
What you can ask
Which Messenger conversations on our Page are waiting for an answer?
Show me the conversation with the person who wrote this morning on Instagram.
Reply to her: "Yes, we deliver to Kuwait City. Delivery takes two days."
Listing conversations
Ask for the conversations of a Page on Messenger, or of its Instagram account. You get them newest first, each with:
- who it is with;
- when the last message was, and whether the last word is theirs (unanswered);
- whether you can still reply (see the 24-hour window).
Unless you ask for all of them, you get only the unanswered ones. The list reads no message text.
"Unanswered" is worked out from who spoke last. The server keeps no note of what you have seen, so there is nothing to mark.
Reading a conversation
Ask to see one conversation. You get its recent messages, oldest first, each marked as from them or from you. Meta gives the 20 newest messages of a conversation and no more.
A message with no text is an attachment, a sticker, a reaction or a reply to a story. Those are not read here.
What comes back is private. The AI client is told to show it to you and use it for your reply, and not to copy it into a post, a comment, an ad or anywhere else unless you ask.
Replying
A reply is one private message to one person in one conversation. It arrives at once and cannot be recalled or deleted from here. So the AI client shows you the conversation and the proposed reply first, and sends it only after you confirm, for each reply. See How it keeps you safe.
The preview is the server's own check. Meta has not seen the message at that point and may still refuse it.
Replying needs write access on your account here. Listing and reading do not.
The 24-hour window
Meta lets a Page reply for 24 hours after the person last wrote. The server reads the conversation before it sends and checks this itself:
- Inside the window, the reply goes.
- Outside it, the reply is refused, and the refusal says when the window closed.
- When none of the newest messages is from the person, it cannot be shown that the window is open, and the reply is refused too.
Only the person writing again opens the window. Meta has a separately reviewed feature that stretches it to seven days; the server does not use it.
The daily cap on messages
Messages have their own cap, separate from posts and from replies to comments. The administrator sets it on Safety limits, under Posting limits:
| Label | Starts at |
|---|---|
| Messages sent per person per day | 100 |
| Longest message, characters | 1000 |
The count is per person over the last 24 hours. An empty box means no limit. Meta's own ceilings hold whatever is set here: 2,000 characters on Messenger, and 1,000 bytes on Instagram, where a letter outside Latin script, such as an Arabic letter, takes two or more.
What is refused
- Everything, while Messages is off.
- Any request when your connection lacks the messaging permissions. The refusal names what is missing; you reconnect on Meta connection.
- A reply outside the 24-hour window.
- A reply to anyone who is not the other person in that conversation, and a conversation that is not your Page's.
- A reply over the daily cap or the longest length.
- A reply from a user without write access, or while the server is in read-only mode.
Some things do not exist here at all:
- a first message to someone who has not written to you;
- the same message to several people, or any bulk send;
- attachments;
- deleting a message or a conversation.
If Meta itself refuses a message because the window is closed, or because the person cannot receive messages from the Page (they may have blocked it or closed their account), the answer says that in plain words. Nothing was sent, and trying again does not help.
Nothing is stored
The server keeps nothing of a conversation: no message, no name, no time, not even a note of what you have read.
A reply leaves one row in the activity log. It holds the conversation's id, the recipient's id and the length of the reply. It does not hold the person's words or name, and it does not hold the text of your reply either.
Reading leaves no row.