Getting started with an Instagram channel

This article details the steps required to set up an Instagram channel for use with the Sinch Conversation API. Your Conversation API app can send messages from Instagram acounts that you have integrated with the app.

Prerequisites

Before you can set up an Instagram channel on the Conversation API, you need to do the following:

General requirements

1. Sign up for the Sinch Customer Dashboard.
2. Get access to the Conversation API.
3. Create your app.
4. Create your access key. Any API calls you make will require authentication information provided by your access key.

Refer to the Conversation API Getting started section for more information on any of these steps.

Instagram Prerequisites

To integrate Instagram with the Sinch Conversation API, you must have an Instagram business account. You must also have a Facebook account and be an admin of a Facebook Page that is connected to your Instagram business account. Finally, you must ensure that tools that are connected to your Instagram account have access to Instagram Messages. If you don't already meet these requirements, refer to the following Facebook pages, which describe how to complete these steps:

• For information on how to set up a Facebook account, see How do I create a Facebook account.
• For information on how to set up a business Facebook Page, see Create a Facebook Page for Your Business.
• You must be an admin of the Facebook Page. For more information on Page roles, see What are the different Page roles and what can they do?.
• For information on how to set up an Instagram business account, see Set Up a Business Account on Instagram.
• For information on how to connect your Instagram business account to your Facebook Page, see Add or Remove an Instagram Account From Your Facebook Page.
• For information on how to provide connected tools access to Messages, see Manage Your Instagram Messaging Access Across Apps.

Configuring the Conversation API and Instagram integration

Next, you must enable the Instagram integration for your Conversation API app. For a full description of how to connect your Instagram account to your Conversation API app, see How do I connect my Instagram account to a Conversation API app? on our Community site. A summary of the process is provided below:

1. Log in to the Sinch Customer Dashboard and navigate to your Conversation API app.
2. Select Instagram in the Set up channels section.
3. Log in with your Facebook credentials and complete the integration process.

   Warning

   Don't deselect any previously connected Instagram business accounts or Facebook Pages. Doing so will remove the Instagram business account or Facebook Page from the Conversation API app and invalidate an existing Conversation API app integration.

If you run into any issues while connecting your Instagram business account to your Conversation API app, see this article for troubleshooting tips.

You must also configure at least one Conversation API webhook which will trigger POST callbacks to the given URL. For more information on how to do this using the Customer Dashboard, see How to add a webhook to a Conversation API app.

Once the integration is ACTIVE and your Conversation API webhook has been configured, send a test message to your Instagram business account.

Note that Instagram has a standard messaging window of 24 hours. For information on how to send a message outside of the standard messaging window, see Instagram channel properties.

Next steps

After configuring the channel, you need to set the channel priority in your app.

In order to send a message using the Conversation API, you must have your contact's ID. To get a list of your contact IDs, make a GET request to the contact webhook. For more information, see the API reference.

Once you have set your channel priority and have your contact's ID, you can begin sending and receiving messages in your preferred language: