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.
• Creating, sending, pausing and cancelling needs the Owner, Admin or Editor role. Everyone else can open the list and the results.
• While OmniBrand's Meta app is still in testing (standard access), Meta only delivers to people who have a role on the app; everyone else is Skipped with OmniBrand's Meta app is still in testing …. This goes away once the app is live.

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. - {n} right away · {n} 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.

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 Waiting. 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: OmniBrand's Meta app is still in testing …. The page refreshes itself while the broadcast is sending, and you get a notification when it finishes, pauses or fails.

Change, pause, cancel, delete

• Send now starts a draft or a scheduled broadcast at once.
• 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 carries on where it stopped. 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 (not available yet) 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 need the page_utility_messaging permission for OmniBrand's Meta app (which Meta grants through App Review) and a template approved for your Page. OmniBrand's app does not have that permission yet, so the Messenger broadcasts page says so and nothing is sent this way. Until then, send such updates as WhatsApp templates or by email. Instagram has no such messages.

If something goes wrong

• "Nobody in this audience can get it. Run the simulation to see who is left out and why." — nobody has an open window (or nobody in the chosen list does).
• Stopped: The connection to Meta was refused … — the Page's or account's login expired or was removed; reconnect it under Accounts, then press Resume.
• Stopped: Meta refused the Page's messages … — the connection lacks the messaging permission or Meta blocked the Page; check the account under Accounts, then press Resume.
• Meta's rate limit: sending slows down by itself and carries on a few minutes later; nothing to do.
• "This broadcast has started in the meantime and can no longer be changed" — it was sent or its time came while you edited.

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)