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Instagram automation fails for a small number of reasons, and almost all of them are decided before you write a single flow.
Instagram only exposes messaging to apps for Business and Creator accounts. On a personal account there is no API to connect to, so nothing is possible — not a workaround, an absence.
Switching is free, keeps your posts and followers, and takes about a minute: Settings, then Account type and tools, then switch to a professional account.
This is the single most common reason a connection fails, and the error usually says something about an unsupported account type rather than saying this plainly.
Replying publicly to a comment and sending that person a DM are separate actions. A comment-to-DM automation does both, and it can do them because the person interacted with you first.
What you cannot do is message people who have not interacted. There is no supported way to DM a follower list, and any tool offering it is driving the app rather than using the API — which is what gets accounts restricted.
Every legitimate Instagram automation runs on the Meta Graph API. That is what an app is reviewed and approved for, and it is what keeps an account out of trouble.
The alternative — tools that log into the app with your password and act as you — breaks Instagram's terms, and the consequence lands on your account rather than on the tool. A tool asking for your Instagram password is telling you which kind it is.
Meta limits how much an app can send on your behalf, and the limits are not generous enough to treat DMs as a broadcast channel.
Practically this means automation works best as a reply mechanism — fast, relevant answers to people who just contacted you — and works badly as an outreach mechanism. The businesses that get value from it are answering, not prospecting.
No. Instagram only exposes messaging to apps for Business and Creator accounts. Switching is free and takes about a minute in Settings.
No. There is no supported way to message people who have not interacted with you. Tools that offer it are automating the app rather than using the API, and the risk lands on your account.
Not when it runs on the official Meta Graph API and replies to people who contacted you. What breaks the rules is unsolicited outreach and tools that sign in as you.
Yes. A comment can trigger a public reply, a DM, or both, because the person interacted with you first.