Self Messaging

Updated: Mar 15, 2026

This enables a single Instagram Professional account to act as both a business and an Instagram user, eliminating the need for two separate accounts when testing message previews or automation. This helps showcase messaging automation previews to your newly onboarded business users.

Since the business is messaging itself, the 24-hour response window does not apply.

Requirements

You will need the following:

An Instagram Professional account connected to your app

Business Messaging API access

Webhooks configured for message events

Availability and Limitations

The feature is available for IG business users onboarded through either of these flows: Instagram API with Instagram Login and Instagram API with Facebook Login. Quick Replies are not currently supported for self messaging.

Step 1: Onboard the IG Professional Account

This guide assumes you have read the Instagram Platform Overview and implemented the needed components for using this API, such as a Meta login flow and a webhooks server to receive notifications.

	Instagram API with Instagram Login	Instagram API with Facebook Login
Access Levels	Advanced Access Standard Access	Advanced Access Standard Access
Access Tokens	Instagram User access token	Facebook Page access token
Host URL	`graph.instagram.com`	`graph.facebook.com`
Login Type	Business Login for Instagram	Facebook Login for Business
Permissions	Self messaging webhook `instagram_business_basic` `instagram_business_manage_messages` Self comment webhook `instagram_business_basic` `instagram_business_manage_comments`	Self messaging webhook `instagram_business_basic` `instagram_business_manage_messages` Self comment webhook `instagram_basic` `instagram_manage_comments` `pages_read_engagement` If the app user was granted a role on the Page connected to your app user’s Instagram professional account via the Business Manager, your app will also need: `ads_management` `ads_read`
Webhooks	Self messaging webhook `messages` Self comment webhook `comments` `live_comments`	Self messaging webhook `messages` Self comment webhook `comments` `live_comments`

Step 2: Set Up Webhooks

Set up the webhook to listen for message and postback events.

When the Instagram Professional account sends a message to itself in the Instagram app, an echo webhook is triggered, including the Instagram-scoped ID of the account. is_self with a value of true indicates it is a self message.

Example Echo Webhook

{
  "object": "instagram",
  "entry": [
    {
      "id": "<YOUR_APP_USERS_IG_USER_ID>",
      "time": 1569262486134,
      "messaging": [
        {
          "sender": { "id": "<YOUR_APP_USERS_IG_USER_ID>" },
          "recipient": { "id": "<INSTAGRAM_SCOPED_ID>" },
          "timestamp": 1569262485349,
          "message": {
            "mid": "<MESSAGE_ID>",
            "text": "<MESSAGE_TEXT>",
            "is_echo": true,
            "is_self": true
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Step 3: Send a Self Message Using the Business Messaging API

Use the recipient ID received from the webhook to send a message to self on the API.

Example Request

curl -X POST "https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<INSTAGRAM_SCOPED_ID>/messages" \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
        -d '{
              "message": {
                "text": "Hello from your IG Pro account!"
              }
            }'

On success, your app receives a confirmation with the message ID.

{
  "id": "<MESSAGE_ID>"
}

Postback and Comment Webhooks

When the Instagram Professional user clicks a CTA button or interacts with a message, a postback webhook is generated with "is_self": true.

Example Postback Webhook

{
  "object": "instagram",
  "entry": [
    {
      "id": "45202218377435",
      "time": 1743480368963,
      "messaging": [
        {
          "sender": { "id": "<YOUR_APP_USERS_IG_USER_ID>" },
          "recipient": { "id": "<INSTAGRAM_SCOPED_ID>" },
          "timestamp": 1743480368714,
          "is_self": true,
          "postback": {
            "title": "Start Chatting",
            "payload": "DEVELOPER_DEFINED_PAYLOAD",
            "mid": "<MESSAGE_ID>"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Example Comment Webhook

When the Instagram Professional user comments on their own post, a comments webhook is generated with self_ig_scoped_id as the IGSID of their professional account.

{
  "object": "instagram",
  "entry": [
    {
      "id": "<YOUR_APP_USERS_INSTAGRAM_ACCOUNT_ID>",
      "time": "<TIME_META_SENT_THIS_NOTIFICATION>",
      "changes": [
        {
          "field": "comments",
          "value": {
            "from": {
              "id": "<YOUR_APP_USERS_INSTAGRAM_ACCOUNT_ID>",
              "username": "<INSTAGRAM_USER_USERNAME>",
              "self_ig_scoped_id": "<YOUR_APP_USERS_INSTAGRAM_SCOPED_ID>"
            },
            "id": "<COMMENT_ID>",
            "text": "<COMMENT_TEXT>",
            "media": {
              "id": "<MEDIA_ID>",
              "media_product_type": "<MEDIA_PRODUCT_TYPE>"
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}