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v2026.09.01

Instagram Direct Messages: Two-Way Conversations API

Outstand moves beyond publishing with a new Conversations API that brings two-way messaging to your integration, starting with Instagram Direct:

  • Manage Instagram DM conversations: New endpoints let you list conversations, fetch conversation details, and read or send messages for any connected Instagram account, all through the same API-key auth and cursor pagination you already use.
  • Send rich messages: Outbound messages support plain text, images, video, audio, links, multiple images in a single send, media-only messages, and replying directly to a specific inbound message.
  • Mark conversations as read: A single call marks all inbound messages in a conversation as read and clears the unread count.
  • Schedule messages and cancel before they send: Set a future scheduled_at on an outbound message and cancel it any time before it goes out.
  • Reply outside the normal time window: Instagram limits free-form replies to 24 hours after a contact's last message. Tagging a send as a human agent response now extends that window to 7 days for support-style conversations.
  • Real-time delivery events: New webhook events (conversation.started, message.received, message.sent, message.read, message.failed) let your systems react to conversation activity as it happens, including reliable delivery of read receipts.
  • Instagram OAuth fix: Removed a messaging permission from the default Instagram connection scopes that could have broken sign-in before it was approved by Meta.