Inbox & Leads
Instagram chats and replies to your sales emails land in one Inbox, and everyone you talk to is saved as a contact. Automations handle most chats; the ones that need you move to Assigned with the reason.
- Mia TorresInstagram · “Can I talk to someone about a group booking?”Asked for a person
- Jordan LeeEmail · “Does the course include the templates?”Replied to your email
- Priya ShahInstagram · “Do you ship to Canada?”No saved answer
- Sam OrtizInstagram · Got the guide linkAnswered automatically
Automations are paused for Mia for 24 hours.
Why a chat is handed to you
Every hand-off carries its reason, so you know what the person needs before you open the chat.
| Reason | What happened |
|---|---|
| Asked for a person | They wrote something like “can I speak to someone”, or one of the hand-off words you set on an Answer questions automation. |
| No saved answer | An Answer questions automation had nothing that matched, and hand-off is on for questions it can’t answer. |
| Booking needs a person | A Book an appointment automation couldn’t offer a time that worked. |
| Follow not confirmed | Follow to unlock asked twice and Instagram still didn’t show a follow. |
| Codes ran out | A Deliver automation had no unique codes left to hand out. |
| Replied to your email | Someone answered a Get more sales email. The reply shows in the Inbox as an email chat. |
| Message not confirmed | Instagram didn’t confirm a send after 5 minutes, so a person checks instead of Askenly sending it twice. |
Reply to a handed-off chat
Open Inbox
Assigned chats are unread and show why they were handed to you. The bell in the header lists open hand-offs too.
Read the history
The whole conversation, including the automated messages, and the contact’s details are on the same screen.
Write a reply, or press Suggested reply
An AI draft fills the composer, written from your Business profile, hours, services, saved answers and the last 10 messages. Edit it as you like. It is never sent on its own.
Send
Instagram replies go from your Instagram account, and you can attach photos, video, audio or a PDF. Email replies go out by email, threaded, from your business name.
Automations step back while you talk
When a chat is handed off, or when anyone on your team sends a reply by hand, automations pause for that person for 24 hours. No follow-up or automated answer lands in the middle of your conversation. The pause ends on its own; there’s nothing to resume.
Anyone who sends the single word STOP gets no more automated messages from any automation until they send START. You can still reply to them yourself.
Instagram only lets businesses reply within 24 hours of the person’s last message. Reply to handed-off chats the same day, or the conversation has to wait until they write again.
Suggested replies
Suggested reply appears on handed-off chats when AI replies are available for your workspace. Drafts per day depend on your plan: 20 on Free, 100 on Starter, 400 on Growth and 1,500 on Scale. Drafts only use facts you’ve saved in Askenly, so if the answer isn’t in your profile, services or saved answers, the draft won’t make one up.
On paid plans, drafts also use the business knowledge you add in Settings → Business profile. Filling that in is the quickest way to get drafts you can send with few edits.
Hand-off emails
Workspace owners and admins get an email when a chat is handed off, at most once per chat every 30 minutes, so a busy conversation doesn’t fill your inbox. Choose who gets what in Settings → Notifications.
Contacts and leads
Everyone who messages you is saved in Contacts with their Instagram handle, profile photo and the full conversation. Emails captured in a DM, booking details and tags are added to the same person, so the history of a lead stays in one place.
Use the Inbox views (All conversations, Unread, Assigned to me, Open and Closed) to split work across a team. Close a chat when it’s done, so Open only shows what still needs an answer. Contacts and leads explains statuses, tags and CSV export.
Inbox questions
Do I need to resume automations after replying?
No. The 24-hour pause ends on its own.
Why is Suggested reply missing?
It appears on handed-off chats when AI replies are available for your workspace and you have drafts left for the day.
Can I reply from the Instagram app instead?
You can, and the person gets it. Replying from the Inbox keeps the whole history and the hand-off reason in one place for your team.
Do email replies count toward my DM limit?
No. The DM limit counts Instagram messages Askenly sends for you.
Working as a team
Assigned to me shows the chats handed to you, and Unread shows anything nobody has opened yet. A simple routine works for most teams: check Assigned a few times a day, reply, then close the chat. Hand-off emails go to owners and admins; members see the same chats in the Inbox and the bell.
Every reply, hand-off and automated message stays in the chat history, so whoever picks up a conversation can see what was already said.