A DM only goes out if Instagram's messaging rules allow it. Miss those rules and the reply is silently dropped, so they're worth two minutes of your time.

What a DM action can contain

A send-DM action can be any of these message formats:

• Text — a plain message with your link or call to action.
• Card — an image with a title, subtitle, and one or more buttons.
• Carousel — a swipeable row of cards.
• Quick replies — a text message with tappable chips the person can pick from.

A card button can either open a URL or move the automation to a step. A quick-reply chip always moves the automation to a step — chips can't open a link, so put a link in the message text or use a card button (and a tapped choice can branch the flow). A DM action can also attach media you've uploaded to Files — note that a text caption plus an attachment arrives as two messages, the text first and the file right behind it.

A DM action runs as a reply triggered by a comment, or as a reply to an incoming DM. Keep it conversational — you're answering someone who just raised their hand.

Choices on the canvas

Quick-reply chips and card buttons show up on their Send DM card as pills, in the order they're sent. Each choice that moves the automation has a dashed orange line from the card down to the step it opens, labelled with the choice's text, so you can follow any tap to its answer. A line that goes back to an earlier step runs up the right-hand side with a ↺ on it. A link button shows ↗ and has no line, because it leaves the automation. The legend in the top-left corner of the canvas names each kind of line that appears in this automation.

• Add a choice in the card's panel. Open the Send DM card, and each choice has a Go to step list. Pick + New step… to give that choice a brand-new step of its own, or point it at a step that's already there. Up to 13 chips, 20 characters each.
• A choice that goes nowhere is flagged. If its step was deleted or never picked, the card shows Not connected under it, and Save refuses the automation until you point it somewhere or remove it.
• No "+" under a step that waits for a tap. Once a DM sends choices, the run waits there for a tap — there is no "next step" to add under it. Add what should happen under each choice's own step instead.
• Typing instead of tapping gets the choices once more. If the person types a reply instead of tapping, no path is picked — big sends the same message with its choices again and keeps waiting for a tap. If they type a second time, the conversation ends there and nothing more is sent, so make each label say exactly what they'll get. The repeat counts as a send like any other: it uses your weekly sending allowance and one of the automation's steps. (An older automation may have a step hung straight under a chip card; that line is labelled TYPED INSTEAD, and a typed reply goes down it instead of getting the choices again.)
• Comment automations send text only, so their choices are drawn struck through and never sent.

The rule that decides delivery: the messaging window

Instagram only lets you send a DM inside an open messaging window:

• Comment-triggered DMs can be sent within 7 days of the person's comment.
• DM conversations open a 24-hour window that re-anchors each time the person messages you again. As long as they keep replying, the window keeps reopening.
• Once the window has expired, the send can't go out and the automation run is marked expired — big won't keep retrying against a closed window.

The full timing picture is on The 24-hour window.

Why a DM might not send

• The messaging window has closed (most common).
• The recipient's account can't receive automated messages.
• You've hit your plan's weekly sending cap, which blocks new conversations from starting (ones already mid-flow finish) — see Limits & plans.
• Your workspace has been suspended, which pauses new automation runs and holds queued sends until it is lifted.

If a send didn't happen, "Why didn't my automation fire?" walks through each cause.

Next step

Read The 24-hour window so your replies always land inside an open window.