---
key: reply-to-a-social-message
title: Reply to a Facebook or Instagram message
audience: staff
section: communications
routes: ["/communications/social"]
permissions: ["communications.message.read"]
features: ["communications.social"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Open the Social inbox, find a direct message from Facebook, Instagram or another connected social account, reply with text or a file, and link the sender to a customer.
keywords: [facebook messenger, instagram dm, direct message, social inbox, meta, reply on social, linkedin]
related: [find-a-conversation-across-channels, send-a-text-message, create-an-account]
---

In the sidebar, open **Communications**, then **Social**. The page address is `/communications/social`. The page title reads **Social Inbox**.

## Before you start

- A social account has to be connected. If the page reads **No social accounts connected**, press **Connect social account** (or **View social account settings** if your role cannot connect one) and ask an admin to finish the setup.
- Your role needs permission to read and send messages. Without the send permission, the reply box, **Upload media** and **Send** are greyed out. Sending a video needs its own permission.

## Steps

1. Find the conversation in the list on the left; the newest one opens on its own. To narrow the list, type a name, handle or words from the last message in **Search social conversations** and press **Search**. **Refresh** reloads the list, which also refreshes by itself.
2. Press the conversation. Its messages open on the right.
3. On a Facebook or Instagram conversation, check **Send policy**. Leave **Standard response window** when the customer wrote in the last 24 hours. Choose **Human agent** only when a person is following up after that, inside Meta's extended support window. Other networks do not show this choice.
4. Type your reply in **Write a reply**.
5. To send a file instead, press **Upload media** and pick one file. Wait until its name is followed by "ready to send". On Facebook and Instagram, send text and a file as two separate messages.
6. Press **Send**. Nova shows **Nova is sending this message in the background.** and then **Social message sent.**

## What you see

- Each row shows the sender's name or handle, the network's badge, the last message, when it arrived, and your unread count.
- **Create account** and **Link account** appear when the sender is not linked to a customer yet and your role can create accounts and contacts. Both open **Create or link an account**, where you create a new account or pick an existing one, then check **Here’s what will be saved**, then press **Create account** or **Save details**. Nova shows **Account details saved**.
- **Refresh thread** reloads the open conversation.
- A link to a conversation keeps that conversation selected while the inbox loads. If it is no longer in the loaded list, the first available conversation opens instead.
- Opening a conversation does not clear its unread count. **Mark Read** and **Mark Unread** change it for you. Tick **Sync read to provider** first if the customer should see it as read on the network; the box is greyed out unless your organization has turned that on.
- Each message shows its delivery status and time.
- After an upload, **Replace media** swaps the file and **Remove** drops it. NovaScan checks every file before it can be sent.

## If something looks different

- The list reads **No social conversations found.**: nothing matches your search, or no messages have arrived yet.
- **Send** stays greyed out: the message is empty, NovaScan is still checking the file, the file could not be prepared (press **Remove** and try another), a video needs a permission your role does not have, or an earlier message is still sending (**This message is sending in the background. You can leave this page safely.**).
- Nova shows **Send text and media as separate Meta messages in this inbox.**: send the text first, then the file, or the other way round.
- Nova says standard response mode has expired: the customer's last message is more than 24 hours old. Switch to **Human agent** only for a real person-to-person follow-up.
- A yellow box reads **Provider result needs confirmation**: Nova could not tell whether the last message reached the network, so sending is locked here. An admin with the right permission checks the network and presses **Confirm completed** or **Confirm not completed**. Do not resend it another way meanwhile, or the customer may get it twice.

[[route:/communications/social|Open the Social inbox]]