Messenger and Instagram broadcasts: message everyone who wrote in the last 24 hours

Messenger broadcasts (Engage → Messenger broadcasts, /app/messenger) and Instagram broadcasts (Engage → Instagram broadcasts, /app/instagram) send one message to the people who wrote to your Facebook Page or Instagram account in the last 24 hours: an offer, news or a reminder, with up to three links and an image. Both pages work the same way; the differences are listed below.

Why so few people are eligible

• Meta lets a business message a person on Messenger or Instagram only within 24 hours of that person's last message to the Page or account (the "standard messaging window"). After that, the business may not write first.
• So a broadcast can only reach people who wrote to you in the last 24 hours. Someone who wrote yesterday morning is already out; someone who writes again opens a new 24-hour window.
• Each window is checked three times: when you save the broadcast (only open windows are included), again just before each person's message goes, and by Meta itself. Anyone whose window closed in the meantime is Skipped, never messaged.
• The old ways around the window are gone: the message tags for event, account and purchase updates stopped working on 27 April 2026, and Human agent (7 days) is only for a person typing a reply in the inbox, never for a broadcast. OmniBrand uses neither.
• To reach more people: answer quickly in the inbox, use click-to-Messenger or click-to-Instagram ads, and let automations turn comments into conversations. Every new conversation opens a window.
• For people outside the window, use a WhatsApp broadcast (approved templates) or an email broadcast.

Before you start

• Connect your Facebook Page (Facebook) or your professional Instagram account (Instagram) with its messages coming into the OmniBrand inbox. Without one the page says No Facebook Page connected (or No Instagram account connected) with Open Accounts. When the account is connected but disconnected (the platform no longer accepts its access), the page names it instead in a red box: [name] is disconnected, so it cannot send broadcasts. Reconnect it in Accounts. with Open Accounts, and New Messenger broadcast (or New Instagram broadcast) is hidden until you reconnect it. On Marketing messages a disconnected Page is named the same way.
• While Messenger or Instagram messages are coming soon, a yellow note above No Facebook Page connected (or No Instagram account connected) and above the red box about a disconnected account says so: Messenger: Coming soon - opening to everyone shortly. (Instagram: on the Instagram pages). The button then reads Open Accounts. The note shows on the broadcasts page, on the new-broadcast page and on Marketing messages.
• Creating, sending, pausing and cancelling needs the Owner, Admin or Editor role. Everyone else can open the list and the results. Opening the new-broadcast page by its address shows Only Owners, Admins and Editors create broadcasts instead of the form, and an empty list says Broadcasts appear here once an Owner, Admin or Editor creates one. When saving says Fix the highlighted fields first., the page scrolls to the first field to fix and puts the cursor in it. A message over the length limit is marked red while you type, with the count beside it.
• While sending to everyone is coming soon, Meta does not deliver to some people yet; they are Skipped with Skipped: sending to everyone is coming soon …. This goes away once sending is open to everyone.

Step by step: write and send

1. Open Engage → Messenger broadcasts (or Engage → Instagram broadcasts) and press New Messenger broadcast (or New Instagram broadcast). The composer opens (/app/messenger/new, /app/instagram/new).
2. Sender: pick the Page under Send from Page (Instagram: the account under Send from account), type a Broadcast name (only your team sees it) and, if it belongs to one of your campaigns, pick it under Part of a campaign (optional).
3. Message: type the Message. Press Insert first name to add {{first_name}}; {{name}} is the full name. Give a fallback for people without a name: {{first_name|there}}. The counter under the box shows what is left: Messenger allows 2,000 characters, or 640 when the message has buttons; Instagram allows about 950 bytes including the links (an Arabic letter counts as 2).
4. Optionally fill Link buttons (optional, up to 3): Button 1 text (up to 20 characters) and Button 1 link (https://), and so on. On Messenger they are buttons under the text. Instagram has no link buttons for such a message, so each one is written under the text as "Label: link".
5. Optionally add an Image link (optional): a public image address starting with https://. It arrives as a second message after the text.
6. Who gets it: by default Everyone with an open window. To narrow it, pick a list or segment under Only people in (optional) (Lists and segments); only those of them with an open window get it. Tick lists under Leave out people in and type tags under Leave out people tagged (separated by commas). People blocked or marked as spam in the inbox, and people who said STOP or withdrew consent for this channel (Consent), are always left out. A person who sends STOP (or UNSUBSCRIBE, إيقاف, إلغاء الاشتراك …, or one of your own words from Settings → Messaging rules) to your Page or Instagram account in a direct message is marked Stopped all messages for Messenger (or Instagram), with the source Replied with a keyword, is skipped in the broadcasts of that Page or account still waiting to go to them, and gets one short reply in the language they wrote in (inside their 24-hour window, unless the confirmations are turned off in Messaging rules). The conversation stays in the inbox and you can still answer it; sending START, SUBSCRIBE or اشتراك subscribes them again.
7. When: Send now, Schedule (then pick Send at, your local time) or Save as draft. Keep a schedule close: windows keep closing, and people who write to you after you save are not added (open it, press Edit, then Save changes to add them).
8. Check the Preview on the right, as Desktop or Phone (375 px): the message as the person sees it, with your name in place of theirs.
9. Press Run simulation (see below).
10. Press the button at the bottom: Send now asks Send this broadcast now? with the number of people; press Send now (or Not yet to keep it as a draft). Schedule saves it as Scheduled; Save draft saves it as Draft. Its results open.

The simulation

Run simulation is a dry run with the same rules as the real send; nothing is saved or sent. It shows:

• [n] would get it, and [n] people have an open 24-hour window now.
• With Schedule: how many of these windows close before the send time (those people are skipped unless they write again) and how many would still get it; and when windows close within an hour after the send, a line saying to send it soon.
• [now] right away · [later] later, in their local send window — people outside the send window of Settings → Messaging rules wait for it. Careful: if their 24-hour window closes first, they are skipped.
• over the frequency cap (skipped) — people who already got as many marketing messages as your caps allow (all channels together).
• Left out, by reason: last wrote more than 24 hours ago (window closed), in the list but never wrote to this account, said STOP or withdrew consent, blocked or marked as spam in the inbox.
• How long the send takes, a warning when people have no name for {{first_name}}, a short Why so few? explanation, and A few recipients with what each one gets. A person who waits for their send window shows when it opens, in their time and in yours, for example Waiting until Oct 5, 2026, 9:00 AM their time (Europe/Berlin) · Oct 5, 2026, 8:00 AM your time.
• When nobody would get it, there are no "right away · later" or "About … min" lines.

The test message

There is no "send a test to yourself" on Messenger or Instagram: a Page or account can only write to people who wrote to it, and OmniBrand does not know which of them is you. The composer says so under Test message. To see the real message: write to your Page or account from your own Facebook or Instagram profile, add yourself to a list (Lists and segments), pick that list under Only people in (optional) and send it within 24 hours.

The results

Click a broadcast in the list (on a phone it opens full screen; All Messenger broadcasts or All Instagram broadcasts goes back). You see:

• The status (Draft, Scheduled, Sending, Paused, Sent, Failed, Cancelled), From (the Page or account) and Part of the campaign when it belongs to one.
• Recipients, Sent (messages Meta accepted), Skipped, Failed and Still to send (queued, waiting for a send window or a retry, or going out now: who Resume sends to; a paused broadcast's box says it too, for example It has not been sent to 3 recipients yet.). Skipped is mostly people whose window closed before their turn.
• Left out when it was saved: the same reasons as the simulation.
• Message: the text, the buttons and the image link.
• Recipients: filter by status under All statuses, Search by name, and Load more. Each row shows the person's name, their Messenger or Instagram id, when it was sent and, when skipped, why: Skipped: their 24-hour window closed before their turn, Skipped: this person cannot get messages now (they blocked the Page or left), Skipped: blocked or marked as spam in the inbox, Skipped: said STOP or withdrew consent, Skipped: the conversation is gone or Skipped: sending to everyone is coming soon …. A person waiting for their send window shows Waiting until … their time (…) · … your time, and one taken out by Cancel broadcast shows Not sent: the broadcast was cancelled. While the broadcast is paused, everyone still waiting shows Waits for Resume: the broadcast is paused; any other wait gives its reason and the next try, for example Waiting: the platform asked to slow down · next try Oct 5, 2026, 9:05 AM (your time). A failure says why in your language, for example Not sent: the platform refused this message, with Meta's own words on a second line after What the platform said:; one every try failed for reads Not sent: a temporary error kept happening; gave up after 3 tries.
• A paused or failed broadcast says why in a box under its name, starting with Paused: or Failed: (see If something goes wrong). When reconnecting is the fix it ends with Open Accounts, and Meta's own words follow under What the platform said:. While the account it sends from is still disconnected, that one red box names it: Paused: [name], the account it sends from, is disconnected. Reconnect it in Accounts: Resume stays off until then. with Open Accounts (the red box at the top of the list then leaves that account out). Once you have reconnected it, the box says Paused: It paused because the account was disconnected. It is connected again: press Resume to send to the people left. A Viewer or Reviewer has no Resume: their box gives the reason and then who can act, for example The account's connection could not be used. An editor or admin can resume it once the account is reconnected. On a draft or scheduled broadcast the second sentence is An editor or admin can send it once the account is reconnected.

The page refreshes itself every few seconds while the broadcast is a draft, scheduled, sending or paused, and you get a notification when it finishes, pauses or fails.

The list shows the newest 200 broadcasts. When there are more, Show older campaigns under the list loads the next 200.

Change, pause, cancel, delete

• Send now starts a draft or a scheduled broadcast at once. Leaving the composer with something typed that is not saved - reloading, closing the tab or following a link - first asks Leave this page? What you typed here has not been saved and will be lost. Press Cancel to stay.
• Edit (only before it starts) reopens the composer; Save changes checks the open windows again (and adds people who wrote since).
• Pause stops sending. Resume first asks Resume sending?, for example Sending carries on where it stopped, with the 3 recipients it has not been sent to yet., then, when some already got it, The 4 recipients it was already sent to are not messaged again. (for one, The recipient it was already sent to is not messaged again.); press Resume sending to carry on where it stopped, or Not yet. A paused broadcast with nobody left to send (Still to send 0) has no Resume: after the reason it paused, its box says Nothing is left to send: no recipient of this broadcast is still queued, so there is nothing to resume. Press Cancel broadcast to close it, or make a new broadcast. (without Resume stays off or Open Accounts: reconnecting would give it nobody to send to), and Cancel broadcast is the main button; a Viewer or Reviewer reads Nothing is left to send, so there is nothing to resume. An editor or admin can cancel it. While the broadcast is open, its numbers and the first page of Recipients update by themselves (a list you extended with Load more stays as it is). After Pause, Resume or Cancel broadcast that first page is read again with the status filter and the search you set, and Refresh at the top of the page reads the open broadcast again too, its numbers and Recipients included. Windows keep closing while it is paused.
• Cancel broadcast asks Cancel this broadcast?: nobody else gets it; who already got it stays in the results.
• Delete is only there for a broadcast that sent nothing.
• A broadcast made by Send across channels on a campaign's page (its name ends in "- Messenger" or "- Instagram") has no Edit: its people were chosen by that send, each on one channel (Campaigns).

Outside the window: marketing messages (paid)

Messenger has a second, paid way to reach people: Marketing messages (the Open Marketing messages button on this page). People subscribe to a topic of your Page - for example by accepting a subscribe request you send here - and you can then send them offers at any time, at most one a day, billed by Meta to your ad account. The subscribe request itself is a broadcast on this page: it shows in the list as Opt-in request: …, only goes to people with an open window, and leaves out people who already subscribed or were asked in the last 7 days. See Messenger marketing messages. Instagram has no such messages. If Meta holds the request back for a moment after your intro text went out, only the request is sent again later - not the intro.

Messenger Utility messages (coming soon)

Meta's replacement for the old message tags is Utility messages: pre-approved templates for order, booking and account updates that may be sent outside the 24-hour window, never with marketing content. They are coming soon to OmniBrand: the Messenger broadcasts page says so, and nothing is sent this way yet. Until then, send such updates as WhatsApp templates or by email. Instagram has no such messages.

If something goes wrong

• The bar at the bottom says Nobody can get it yet. See the note under When. and a box under When says Nobody in this audience can get it yet — nobody has an open 24-hour window (or nobody in the chosen list does). It shows after Run simulation finds nobody, or when you press Schedule: a broadcast nobody can get cannot be scheduled. Save draft (or Send now) still saves it as a draft, with the toast Saved as a draft: nobody can get it yet.; nothing is sent. When people message your Page or account, open the draft and press Send now: the audience is checked again and it goes to everyone whose window is open by then. If still nobody can, a box on the broadcast's page says Still nobody can get it: nobody in this audience has written to your Page in the last 24 hours. When people message your Page, press Send now again. (on Instagram: … written to your Instagram account …) with Edit it to see who is left out in the Simulation, which opens the broadcast in the composer.
• Paused: The account's connection could not be used. Reconnect it in Accounts, then press Resume. with Open Accounts — the Page's or account's login expired or was removed (Meta's words follow under What the platform said:); reconnect it under Accounts, then press Resume.
• Paused: Meta refused the messages. Check the account's messaging permission in Accounts, then press Resume. — the connection lacks the messaging permission or Meta blocked the Page; check the account under Accounts, then press Resume.
• Paused: The account it sends from is disconnected. Reconnect it in Accounts, then press Resume. — the account was disconnected while the broadcast was sending. It pauses (nothing is lost) and carries on with the people who have not got it once you reconnect it under Accounts and press Resume. While it is disconnected the box reads Paused: [name], the account it sends from, is disconnected. Reconnect it in Accounts: Resume stays off until then. with Open Accounts, and Resume is off; once it is reconnected the box says It paused because the account was disconnected. It is connected again: press Resume to send to the people left. A disconnected draft shows a red box naming the account with Open Accounts and Send now stays off until the account is reconnected.; pressing it anyway says [name] is disconnected. Reconnect it under Accounts, then try again. An older broadcast that stopped this way before it paused instead reads Failed: The account it sent from was disconnected, so this broadcast stopped and cannot be resumed. Reconnect the account in Accounts, then create a new broadcast for the people it did not reach.
• Editing a draft whose account is disconnected shows the red box and This draft stays read-only until its account is reconnected. Reconnect it in Accounts, then come back to edit or send it. When another account is connected you can pick it instead under Send from Page on Messenger or Send from account on Instagram (the disconnected one is listed as [name] (disconnected)).
• Someone changed this broadcast in the meantime: it is now Cancelled. The page shows where it stands. (or another status) — a teammate paused, resumed or cancelled it just before you pressed a button; the page now shows its real status and buttons. The page refreshes itself every few seconds while the broadcast is a draft, scheduled, sending or paused.
• Paused: Your account is suspended, so nothing is sent. Once it is active again, press Resume. or Paused: This workspace is archived, so nothing is sent. Restore it under Workspaces, then press Resume. — sending waits until the account or workspace is active again; then press Resume.
• This broadcast started sending in the meantime, so it can no longer be changed. Open it to see how it is going. — it was sent, or its time came, while you edited.
• Meta's rate limit: sending slows down by itself and carries on a few minutes later; nothing to do.

Related

• Replying in the inbox
• Campaigns: posts, WhatsApp broadcasts and email under one goal
• Email broadcasts
• Lists and segments
• Settings → Messaging rules
• Messenger marketing messages (paid)