Chat channels
Set up Facebook Messenger / Instagram
Messages to your Facebook Page — and to the Instagram professional account connected to it — answered automatically, one to one, as the Page. Typically customer-facing: pair it with guest access groups holding public-safe documents.
Before you start
- A Meta developer app with the Messenger product added, your Page connected, and a Page access token generated for that Page (Meta app → Messenger → API Settings; it needs the pages_messaging permission). An Instagram professional account connected to the same Page rides along.
- The app secret (Meta app → Settings → Basic, press Show). Technically optional, practically not: with it set, every incoming message's signature is checked.
- A verify token — not a Meta credential but a passphrase you invent (e.g. purple-window-42), entered here and in Meta's webhook form.
- Chat channels → Facebook Messenger / Instagram: enter the Verify token, paste the Page access token and the App secret. Create, then Test — the result names the Page.
- In the Meta app → Messenger → Webhooks, set the Callback URL to the webhook URL from the channel's checklist with the verify token you chose, subscribe to the “messages” field and your Page. For Instagram, also subscribe the Instagram messages field.
- Message the Page (or the Instagram account) to confirm — the checklist ticks “First message received”.
How people use it
Every conversation is one-to-one — there are no group chats to configure. A person sees the typing indicator while the answer forms; /new starts a fresh conversation, /help lists the commands. Only real inbound text is answered — the Page's own messages, delivery and read receipts and postbacks never are. Replies carry the answer's short form with its [n] markers, cut at 1,900 characters.
Access
Sender identities are page-scoped codes, so nobody can be set up by them ahead of time. Anyone who messages appears in the people list (Manage people) as “not assigned”; pick their account and press Assign to give them their own document access from the next message. A signed-in teammate can also link themselves: “Link messaging apps” in the web chat gives a one-time code, valid ten minutes, to message to the Page. Anyone not assigned is a guest: told how to link when no guest access groups are chosen; with groups chosen — the usual setup for a public-facing Page, kept to public-safe documents — they read from those groups.
Meta requires an app review before a Page can message the general public — Meta's developer console walks through it. Without the app secret the channel warns that anyone who learns the webhook URL could post messages; with it, unsigned deliveries are dropped. Test fails when Meta rejects the Page access token — generate a fresh one. Disabling the channel stops answers at once and keeps its setup and history.
Last updated 20 Sep 2026