They asked for a person
“Can I talk to someone?”, or any hand-off words you add to an automation, moves the chat to you straight away.
One inbox for every chat that needs a person
Automations answer the repeat questions. When a customer needs a human, the chat lands in Assigned with the reason and your team gets an email. Replies to your sales emails arrive here too.Automations handle the repeat questions. Chats that need a person land in one inbox, with the reason and an email alert.
Inbox
- MiaInstagramCan I talk to someone about a group booking?Asked for a person
- JordanEmailThanks for the guide. Is the offer still on this week?Replied to your email
- PriyaInstagramDo you do bridal trials on Sundays?No saved answer
- SamInstagramGUIDEAnswered automatically
The Inbox in numbers
- automations stay quiet for a person after a hand-off or a reply you send yourself
- 24 hours
- the shortest gap between two hand-off emails for the same chat
- 30 minutes
- latest messages an AI draft reads before it suggests a reply
- 10
- teammates who can share the Inbox on the Scale plan
- 10
Why a chat comes to you
Each hand-off carries its reason, so you know what the person wants before you open the chat.
Your answers didn’t cover it
With hand-off on, a question your FAQ answers and business assistant can’t answer comes to you instead of getting a guess.
They want to book
A booking reply that needs a person arrives with what they asked for, so you can offer a time yourself.
The follow check stalled
Someone who was asked to follow twice and still hasn’t comes to you, so you can decide what to send.
Your codes ran out
When a Deliver automation has no unique codes left, the next person is handed to you instead of getting nothing.
They replied to your email
A reply to one of your sales emails stops the sequence and opens as an email thread you answer from your business name.
Why the Instagram app isn’t enough for a team
Instagram’s inbox is built for one person on one phone. Once a business gets a steady flow of DMs, messages get missed, two people answer the same question, and nobody can see what was promised last week.
The Askenly Inbox runs in the browser, so anyone on your team can open it. Instagram chats and email threads sit side by side, each linked to a contact with the full history. Assigned shows the chats waiting for a person, and new messages appear as they arrive, without a refresh.
Automations step back while you talk
A bot replying while a person is already helping is the fastest way to lose a customer. After a hand-off, and after any reply you send by hand, Askenly pauses automations for that person for 24 hours.
When the pause ends, everything works as before. If they comment your keyword on next week’s Reel, they get the usual automated reply, and their contact keeps the whole conversation.
Example conversationHand-off
Can I talk to someone?
Of course. I’ve passed this to the team and they’ll reply here shortly.
What happens during a hand-off
Three things happen at once. The chat moves to Assigned, marked unread, with a short reason such as “asked for a person”. Automations pause for that person. Owners and admins get an email, at most one per chat every 30 minutes, and the bell in the app shows the open hand-off.
A teammate opens the chat, reads the history and replies, from scratch or from an AI draft. The reply goes out from your Instagram account, so the customer sees one conversation with your business, whoever typed it.
Reply faster with an AI draft
On a handed-off chat, one click writes a suggested reply into the message box. The draft uses your business profile, hours, services and FAQ answers plus the last 10 messages, so it works from facts you gave it. You edit it and press send. A draft is never sent on its own.
Every plan includes daily drafts: 20 on Free, 100 on Starter, 400 on Growth and 1,500 on Scale.
Example conversationAI draft
Do you have anything Saturday morning?
We open at 9 on Saturdays. Want me to send you the booking link?
What the Inbox keeps for each contact
- The full conversation, including photos and files they sent.
- Their Instagram username, name and profile photo.
- Any email they shared in the chat, and their replies to your sales emails.
- Their bookings, linked from Appointments.
- The tags you add, so you can find them later.
- Whether they sent STOP. Automations leave them alone until they send START.
Set up the Inbox for your team
Invite your teammates
In Settings → Team, make people who manage settings admins and people who answer chats members.
Write your FAQ answers
Add them to an FAQ automation and turn on hand-off for questions it can’t answer.
Fill in your business details
Your business profile, hours and services give AI drafts the right facts.
Choose who hears about hand-offs
Settings → Notifications decides who gets the hand-off emails.
Inbox questions
Do I need the Instagram app open?
No. Messages arrive in the Inbox as they come in, and you reply from your browser.
Can my team share the Inbox?
Yes. Invite teammates as admins or members: 2 teammates on Growth and 10 teammates on Scale.
Who gets the hand-off emails?
Workspace owners and admins, at most one email per chat every 30 minutes.
Are contacts saved automatically?
Yes. Everyone who messages you becomes a contact, with any email they share in the chat.
Do email replies show in the Inbox?
Yes. When someone replies to a Get more sales email (Growth and Scale), the reply appears as an email thread next to your Instagram chats, and you answer it by email from there.
Does the AI ever reply without me?
Not from the Inbox. Drafts only fill the message box. The one AI feature that sends is the business assistant in an Answer automation, which you switch on yourself and which hands off anything your facts don’t cover.
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