How to Auto-Reply to Instagram Story Mentions & Story Replies

When someone shares your product, your podcast or your latest post to their Story and tags you, that's the best advertising you'll get for free. It's also gone in 24 hours, buried in an activity feed, and most creators never say a word back. Instagram Story mention and Story reply automation fixes that: every tag and every reply gets a fast, friendly DM without you living in your notifications.

What "Story mention" and "Story reply" mean

• Story mention: someone tags your @handle in their own Story. It's a public shout-out, and the person almost certainly wants to be noticed.
• Story reply: someone answers one of your Stories with a message. It lands in your DMs like any other message, marked as a reply to that Story.

Both are moments when the person just reached out to you, which matters because it opens Instagram's messaging window (our explainer on the 24-hour rule has the details). Your automatic reply has to go out inside that window, and it does, because it fires within moments of the mention or reply.

What to send when someone mentions you

A mention isn't a request. It's a gift. The best automatic replies thank the person, give them something small and leave a door open:

• Thank-you plus a treat. "Thank you for sharing this! Here's a little something for your next order: [code]."
• Thank-you plus a question. "Love seeing it in the wild. What are you making with it?" Replies keep the conversation, and the window, going.
• Thank-you plus a resource. Point to the guide, playlist or community link that fits the reason they mentioned you.
• Thank-you plus a reshare ask. "Mind if we share your Story on our page?" is normal etiquette and gives you real user-generated content.

What to send when someone replies to your Story

Story replies are the easiest automation to make relevant, because you control the prompt. Put the trigger word in the Story itself ("Reply INFO for the details", "Reply MENU for this week's specials") and the automation answers whoever replies with it. Use Contains keyword if replies might carry extra words, and Exact match if only the bare word should count.

A Story reply also lands as an ordinary DM, so an Incoming DM automation with the same keyword will answer it too. What the Pro-only Story / Mention trigger adds is the ability to target Story activity specifically, and to answer mentions, which carry no text to match.

Copy-and-paste examples

Keep each message short and warm, and swap the [brackets] for your details.

Thank you so much for sharing this! It really made my day. Here's a little thank-you for your next order: [code]. Tell me how you're using it!

Love this reply! Here's the full guide, since you asked: [link]. Anything else you want to know, just say.

Thanks for the mention! Would you be happy for us to share your Story on our page? Just reply YES and I'll tag you.

How to set it up in IG Suite

1. Open Dashboard → IG Suite → Auto-DMs and click New.
2. Under "Trigger on", choose Story / Mention. It's a Pro trigger, so on the free plan it shows as unavailable.
3. Choose how to match. For replies, use Contains keyword or Exact match and add your keywords. For mentions, choose Any comment (the dialog uses that label for every trigger): a mention has no keyword to match, so only the "any" option fires on it.
4. Write the DM, and add a link, a single product or a product carousel if it fits.
5. Under Extra rules, add a tag such as story-mention so these people are easy to find later on the Instagram tab of Submissions.
6. Save it. New automations start switched on, and you can flip the switch on the card any time to pause.

One thing to know: an "any" rule answers every mention and every Story reply with the same message, so word it to work for both ("Thanks for reaching out about our Story!"). If you want different answers, use a keyword in your Story prompt and a keyword rule for replies.

What it can and can't do

• It isn't retroactive. It answers activity that happens after it's switched on. (Rewind, the catch-up tool, covers comments, not Stories.)
• It only reaches people who reached you. Story viewers who never replied or mentioned you can't be messaged.
• It has to stay relevant. Meta's rules expect an automated DM to relate to what the person did. Thank them; don't turn every mention into an ad. Our guide to what Meta actually allows covers the line.
• It's paced. If a Story goes viral and a wave of mentions arrives, IG Suite's slow-down mode spreads the replies evenly instead of firing them in one burst.

Five Story automation ideas to copy

1. Ambassador thank-you. Mention trigger, "Any", thank-you plus a code.
2. Story Q&A follow-up. Reply trigger, "Any", a warm answer and a link to the full post.
3. Waitlist by Story. Prompt "Reply LIST", keyword trigger, capture the email (Pro).
4. Menu or price list. Prompt "Reply MENU", keyword trigger, send the link or product carousel.
5. UGC harvest. Mention trigger, ask permission to reshare, and tag the sender so you can find them later.

Measure what it earns

Each automation's card shows how many times it triggered and, if the DM includes a link, its click-through rate. Everyone who engages lands as a contact you can search by tag on the Instagram tab of Submissions and export to CSV. From there you can connect the dots to which content actually made money.

knit.bio's IG Suite includes Story mention and Story reply automation on Pro, and comment-to-DM on every plan. See how it works, or start free.