Create your first DM automation

Go to Automations in the left sidebar and click New automation, or go straight to /automations/new. The builder shows three step pills across the top: Trigger, Actions, Follow-up — or Trigger, Automate with AI, Review if you pick the DM reply by AI trigger, or Questions, Replies if you pick Ice breakers. You can click back to any step you have already filled in.

Give the automation a name in the automation name field. It is required before you can move past step 1, and it is what you will be searching for in six months when you have fourteen of these. "Send link on comment" is the placeholder for a reason.

Several things can start an automation. Pick one:

A comment automation has to know which posts it is watching. The options are Specific reel or Specific post (pick from a grid of your recent media), Scheduled reel or post (a post you have queued but not published), and Attach while posting, which leaves the automation dormant until you attach it to something in the composer.

Attach while posting is the one to use when you are building the automation before the Reel exists. It shows up in the composer with a "Ready to attach" badge, and picking it there is what wakes it up. There is a whole doc on that flow: comment-to-DM setup.

Type a keyword and press Enter to add it. Add as many as you like. Then choose how strictly they match:

The public reply is the short comment ReelDrop posts back in the thread. It matters more than it looks: the next few hundred people scrolling the comments see that the keyword actually does something, and they comment too.

Switch on Public reply and you get ten default variants like "Got it, check your inbox" and "Just messaged you". ReelDrop picks one at random per comment so the thread does not turn into a wall of identical replies. Edit them, delete the ones that do not sound like you, add your own.

Reply limit stops public replies once the post passes that many comments. Read that carefully: it counts every comment on the post, not the ones that matched your keyword. On a Reel with 500 comments where 40 used the keyword, a limit of 50 stops public replies at the post's 50th comment overall, so only a handful go out. Set it against the comment volume you expect on the post rather than against the number of replies you want. Leave it empty for unlimited. DMs keep sending past the cap either way; only the public replies stop.

Step 2 is called Actions, and it holds three cards that run in order. Card 1 and card 2 are optional; card 3 always sends.

Opening message is on by default. It sends a short message with a button, and the link only arrives after the person taps. That tap is doing real work: someone who asked for the thing confirms they still want it before a link lands in their inbox. The default button label is "Send me the link". On Influencer and Creator you can turn the card off if you would rather send the link immediately. On the free Starter plan it stays on, and ReelDrop adds a short "Sent via reeldrop.io" line at the end of it; the line is added when the message is sent, is not part of your text, and disappears on any paid plan.

Ask for follow is off by default, and it is the one card on this step that is not on the free plan: the follow gate is included on Influencer ($9.99/month) and Creator. Switch it on and ReelDrop asks the commenter to follow you before delivering the link, then checks with Instagram whether they actually did. Follow gates and follow verification covers what that check can and cannot see.

DM message is the one that always sends. Write a few variants here too. Under Buttons, attach up to 3, each with a label of 20 characters or fewer: + Link for a URL, + PDF for a file you upload, or + Carousel links for a strip of product cards (Buttons in your DM, in the comment-to-DM setup doc, covers all three). Every URL must start with https:// — the builder validates this before saving and blocks the save until you fix it. The phone preview beside the editor shows the whole conversation the way the commenter will read it, which is how you catch an awkward line before a thousand people do.

Any of the three messages, and the follow-up, can also carry quick replies: up to 13 tappable answers that sit under the message in the Instagram app (they do not show on desktop), each 20 characters or fewer. A text quick reply can send a reply of its own; one without a reply on the opening message or the follow gate works like that card's button. Email and phone quick replies ask the person to type their address or number, check that it looks right, and save it to their contact in your Inbox, where you can export every contact who shared one as a CSV. Every tap also tags the conversation with the answer. Quick replies are included on Influencer ($9.99/month) and Creator.

Step 3 is one optional follow-up. Switch it on, pick a delay of 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 6 hours, or 23 hours, and write the message. It goes only to people who received the link and then said nothing.

If they reply before the delay is up, the follow-up is cancelled and never sends. Timed follow-ups goes into the timing in more detail.

Step 3 also has the Typing indicator switch, on the Creator plan. With it on, ReelDrop marks the person's message as seen and shows "typing…" for a second or two before each reply, so the automation reads like you answering. It is on by default, and on Starter and Influencer the switch shows a Creator pill instead. Instagram cannot show it on the very first DM to someone who commented, only on the messages after it, and only while they have the app open.

Save. The automation appears on /automations with an active toggle, its trigger badge, and a row of counters that start at zero.

Test it on a real post: comment your own keyword from a second account, or ask a friend. Testing from the account that owns the automation will not work, because the engine skips events generated by your own account so an automation can never answer itself.