Instagram Comments integration: connecting, using and removing

When the Instagram Comments integration is connected, comments left on the connected account's own posts arrive in Piyzi. You see them in a single list and can reply to them, hide them, mark them as handled or delete them. Replying, hiding and deleting are applied on Instagram at the same time.

Prerequisites

• A Piyzi account with an active subscription.

• Pi Store edit permission, or being the workspace owner.

• An Instagram business (professional) account. Personal accounts cannot be connected.

• Signing in to Instagram as an admin of that account while connecting.

• No Facebook Page is required; the connection is made with the Instagram account directly.

Adding the app

1. In the left menu, open My Business → Pi Store.

2. Under the Messaging heading, click the Instagram Comments card.

3. In the dialog that opens, click “Connect with Instagram”.

4. Sign in to your account on Instagram's authorization screen and approve the requested permissions.

5. When you return to Piyzi the card shows “Connected” along with the connected account's username.

Requested permissions

• Basic account info (instagram_business_basic): to read the connected account's username and to fetch the thumbnail and link of the post a comment belongs to.

• Comment management (instagram_business_manage_comments): to receive comments and to reply to, hide, unhide and delete them.

Instagram DMs are a separate Pi Store card with a separate authorization; the permission you grant for comments does not give access to your direct messages. Follower lists, insights and publishing posts are outside the scope of these permissions.

The Comments screen

• Once connected, a Messaging → Instagram Comments entry appears in the left menu. Opening the screen requires the permission to view Instagram comments.

• The list only contains comments on the connected account's own posts; comments you leave on other accounts' posts never arrive here.

• Live broadcast comments and comments that mention your account land in the same list.

• Comments are delivered from Instagram in real time and are recorded within a few seconds. On the web the list does not refresh by itself — reload the page. In the mobile app it refreshes every time you return to the screen, when you bring the app to the foreground, and when you pull to refresh.

• The newest comment is at the top; 30 comments load per page and the rest with “Show more”. The “Unhandled only” switch filters out the comments you have already marked.

• Your own replies also appear in the list, marked with a “Your reply” badge. If the commenter's Instagram username matches one of your customer records, a customer badge appears — click it to open the customer card.

Which post a comment belongs to

• The thumbnail of the post the comment was left on sits at the start of each row. Clicking the thumbnail or the “Go to Post” button opens the post on Instagram.

• Instagram's comment notification only carries the post id; the thumbnail and the post link are fetched separately by Piyzi.

• If the post was deleted or its image cannot be fetched, the comment is still listed and the commenter's initial is shown in place of the thumbnail.

Available actions

• Reply: your reply is published on Instagram underneath that comment on behalf of your business account, and the comment you replied to is automatically counted as “Handled”. The reply button only appears on incoming comments, not on your own replies.

• Hide / Show: the comment is hidden on Instagram and no longer visible under your post. It is not deleted; “Show” brings it back at any time.

• Handled / Unhandled: a follow-up marker kept inside Piyzi only. Nothing changes on Instagram's side.

• Delete: the comment is permanently deleted from Instagram and drops off the Piyzi list. Because it cannot be undone, you are asked to confirm first.

Replying, hiding, marking and deleting all require the permission to reply to and manage Instagram comments. Staff with view-only permission can read the list but cannot act on it.

Notification settings

1. In the left menu, open Messaging → Instagram Comments (or the Inbox).

2. Click the gear button at the top; the Notification Settings panel opens.

3. Turn on the “IG Comment” switch for the people who should be notified and click Save.

• Opening and saving the panel requires the permission to manage messaging notification settings.

• The same panel is reachable from either screen. If only Instagram Comments is connected, the Inbox does not appear in the menu — in that case the gear button is on the Instagram Comments screen.

• If nothing has been configured, comment notifications go to the business owner only.

• Notifications arrive as push notifications in the mobile app. Staff who have never signed in to the app are flagged with “Not signed in to the app” and cannot be reached.

• For comments, at most one notification is sent to a person every 2 minutes, and this limit applies per business: if five comments arrive within two minutes you receive a single notification. For messages the limit applies per conversation instead.

• Tapping the notification opens the Instagram Comments screen in the mobile app.

Removing the app

1. Open My Business → Pi Store.

2. Click the Instagram Comments card.

3. Click “Disconnect”.

• New comments no longer arrive in Piyzi, and replying, hiding and deleting stop working.

• The Instagram Comments entry disappears from the menu.

• Comments already recorded are not deleted; the integration record is deactivated rather than removed.

• Replies you published and comments you hid on Instagram stay as they are — disconnecting does not undo them.

• You can reconnect at any time by following the same steps.

You can also remove the connection from Instagram: revoke Piyzi's access under the app permissions section of your Instagram account settings. Instagram then notifies Piyzi and the integration is deactivated. If you send a data deletion request through Meta, the comment records belonging to that account are deleted as well.

Troubleshooting

• The card does not show “Connected”: a pop-up blocker may have interrupted the authorization; disable it and try again. Make sure the account is a business account and that you signed in as an admin.

• Instagram Comments is missing from the menu: the integration is not connected, or the user does not have permission to view comments.

• A new comment is not in the list: on the web the list does not refresh by itself, so reload the page. A comment left on another account's post never reaches Piyzi.

• A comment arrived but no notification did: the person's “IG Comment” switch may be off in Notification Settings, they may not be signed in to the mobile app, or a comment notification may already have been sent within the last two minutes.

• Replying, hiding or deleting fails: the Instagram authorization may have dropped — because the account password changed, the app was removed on Instagram's side, or the authorization expired. When that happens a “connection has expired” warning appears at the top of the Comments screen; incoming comments keep arriving but actions stop working. Reconnect from Pi Store.

• The post thumbnail is missing: the post was deleted or its image could not be fetched; the comment is still listed and can be replied to.