# Instagram Direct + Krokul CRM

Yes. Krokul CRM integrates with Instagram Direct through the Instagram Messaging API. A direct message to your professional account becomes a contact, a deal and a thread in the Communications section, and the manager replies from Krokul into the same Direct conversation. The messages reach Krokul through its API and webhooks.

**Status:** Via API and webhooks. **Automation platforms:** Zapier, Make.

## What your team gets

### A question under a product photo turns into a deal

A buyer sees a product in your feed and sends a DM. Meta delivers the message to Krokul through the webhook field `messages` with an Instagram-scoped ID of the sender. Krokul creates the contact with the Instagram username, opens a deal in the pipeline chosen for Instagram and starts a thread.

### The shop manager replies without the phone

The DM appears in Communications. The manager answers from the deal card, and Krokul sends the text through the Instagram Messaging API, so the buyer sees it in Direct. Photos the buyer sends stay with the deal as files.

### The 24-hour clock is on the thread

Each Instagram thread shows when the response window closes. If no one has answered, Krokul puts a task on the deal manager before the window ends, so a buyer who wrote in the evening still gets an answer in time.

### The same buyer across channels

When the buyer later leaves a phone or email in Direct and the manager saves it to the contact, website form requests and calls from that number match the same person, and the Instagram thread stays in the contact history.

## What moves between Instagram Direct and Krokul

| Instagram Direct | Krokul | Direction | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct message (webhook field `messages`) | Contact, deal and thread message | Instagram → Krokul | Each DM to the professional account |
| Instagram-scoped ID and username | External key and name of the contact | Instagram → Krokul | First DM of a person |
| Message sent with the Messaging API | Reply typed in the Krokul thread | Krokul → Instagram | Within 24 hours of the last DM |
| Image in a DM | File on the deal | Instagram ↔ Krokul | When either side sends one |
| 24-hour response window | Reply deadline and task for the manager | Instagram → Krokul | After each unanswered DM |

## How to connect today

### Custom flow through the Krokul API and webhooks

1. Switch the Instagram account to a professional one (business or creator) and give your Meta app the messaging permissions. In Krokul, create an API key for contacts, deals and activities.
2. Your receiver answers the verification GET with `hub.challenge` and checks `X-Hub-Signature-256` on every DM it gets.
3. For a new sender, call contact/api-create and card/api-create, and bind the Instagram-scoped ID to the contact with externalRef/api-upsert. Each DM then goes to the deal through activity/api-create.
4. To greet a new buyer inside the 24-hour window, subscribe a Krokul webhook to card.created, verify its x-crm-signature header and reply through the Messaging API.

**Triggers:** New Media Posted in my Account; New Tagged Media.

**Actions:** Publish Photo(s); Publish Video.

### For integrators

Teams that run their own Meta app can receive Instagram webhooks themselves. Such a receiver answers the verification GET with `hub.challenge`, checks `X-Hub-Signature-256` and then writes to Krokul through the public REST API. Store the Instagram-scoped ID with `externalRef/api-set` and write each DM as an activity of type `message`, which the public API accepts like the app does.

[API documentation](https://app.krokul.com/api/v1/docs)

## Questions and answers

### Does Krokul integrate with Instagram Direct?

Yes. Krokul integrates with Instagram Direct through its API and webhooks. A receiver of the Instagram Messaging API webhook turns DMs into contacts, deals and threads in Krokul.

### Do I need a business or creator account?

Yes. Meta documents the Messaging API for Instagram professional accounts, so a personal account cannot be connected.

### Can Zapier or Make catch Instagram DMs instead?

Their standard Instagram for Business apps work with media, tags and comments, without a Direct message trigger. For DMs, a receiver of the Messaging API webhook writes to Krokul through its API.

### Can Krokul send the first message to a follower?

No. Instagram lets a business message a person after that person has written to the account, and the reply has to come within 24 hours.

## Limits

Krokul works with direct messages of an Instagram professional account; posts, comments and personal accounts stay in Instagram. Meta lets a business message a person only after that person wrote first, with 24 hours to respond.

## Related services

- [Facebook Messenger](https://krokul.com/en/integrations/facebook-messenger/index.md)
- [WhatsApp Business](https://krokul.com/en/integrations/whatsapp-business/index.md)
- [Telegram](https://krokul.com/en/integrations/telegram/index.md)
- [Meta Lead Ads](https://krokul.com/en/integrations/meta-lead-ads/index.md)
- [Typeform](https://krokul.com/en/integrations/typeform/index.md)

[Customer messaging](https://krokul.com/en/integrations/category/messaging/index.md)

Instagram is a trademark of Instagram, LLC, part of Meta Platforms, Inc. Krokul is not affiliated with Meta or Instagram.

Updated: 2026-10-12

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App: https://app.krokul.com/ · API: https://app.krokul.com/api/v1/docs