How do I control comment, DM and story replies?
Each surface has its own level — Off, Suggest replies, Auto-answer routine ones, or Auto-answer most eligible — and turning one up never changes another.
Three surfaces, three separate decisions
Engage treats Comments, DMs and Story replies as three independent surfaces. Each one carries its own level, and they do not affect each other. "Answer my comments, only draft my DMs, ignore story replies" is a normal setup, and the server enforces exactly that.
You will find them under How RunSignl helps in Engage → Reply Assistant.
The four levels
Off — RunSignl leaves that surface to you. Nothing is drafted and nothing is sent there.
Suggest replies — RunSignl drafts a reply and it waits for your approval. Nothing reaches your audience until you press Send.
Auto-answer routine ones — routine messages on that surface get an instant reply. Questions and anything uncertain wait for you.
Auto-answer most eligible — routine messages and questions your workspace can genuinely answer are replied to automatically. Sensitive or unconfirmed things still wait for you.
Automatic sending is always narrower than drafting. Even at the highest level, a reply is only sent on its own when it is routine or a question your workspace can support — and never when it is sensitive, hostile, uncertain, on a topic you have excluded, or built on a fact your workspace has not confirmed. Those wait in Needs review.
How to change one
- Open Engage → Reply Assistant.
- Find the surface you want under How RunSignl helps.
- Choose a level from its dropdown.
Each level saves the moment you change it. The line under the surface name updates to describe what that level now does, in plain words.
What happens next
- At Suggest replies, drafts start appearing in Needs review for you to edit, send or skip.
- At either automatic level, eligible replies go out on their own, within your hourly and daily caps. Everything else still lands in Needs review.
- Everything that arrives — sent, drafted or deliberately left alone — is recorded in Activity, with the reason.
Things worth knowing
- Pause is above all three. While Reply Assistant is paused, no surface drafts or sends, whatever its level says.
- Keyword automations are separate and answer first. If an active automation matches a comment, it owns that comment and Reply Assistant stands down, so nobody gets two responses. Your automations keep running regardless of the levels you set here. See How do RunSignl automations work?
- A connected account is required. Levels can be read but not changed until Instagram is connected.
- Owners and editors only. Viewers can see the levels and cannot change them.
If you are unsure where to start
Start every surface at Suggest replies. You see exactly what RunSignl would have said, in your voice, with nothing at stake — and you can raise one surface at a time once its drafts stop needing edits.
Last checked against the live product on .