ReachleeTest your AI chatbot
before a customer does.
The Playground runs your real Reachlee AI (same knowledge, same guardrails, same goals) against messages you type as a contact. Nothing is sent to anyone. Every reply shows why it was written, and a wrong answer is fixed in one step.
How do I test an Instagram AI chatbot without messaging customers?
Use a sandbox that runs the real pipeline without the send. Reachlee's Playground does exactly that: you message your own account as a contact would, the live reply pipeline answers inside the chat, and nothing reaches Instagram or Messenger. Because it is the same pipeline with your current settings, what you see is what a contact would get today, including the cases where the AI decides to say nothing.
Why a second Instagram account isn't a test plan
The usual way to test a DM bot is to message your business account from a personal one and wait. It works, slowly. Every test is a real reply that uses a real credit, every test creates a contact and a conversation in your inbox, you can only ask one thing at a time, and when the answer is wrong you still don't know whether the knowledge, the voice, a keyword automation or a guardrail caused it. You also can't test from the business account itself, because Instagram doesn't deliver a DM from an account to itself. The Playground removes all of that. It never touches your contacts, conversations or automation runs, it explains each decision, and it lets you test before AI Replies is even switched on: a paused AI or replies that are off are noted in the trace, but the Playground still answers so you can tune first and go live second.
- DMs: type as a contact would and see the private reply.
- Comments: pick Comments and see the public reply, plus the DM it would also send when a comment shows buying intent.
- Facebook Pages: the same Playground answers as your Page in Messenger, using that Page's own knowledge.
- Automations first: if a keyword or intent automation would answer a message, the Playground shows that automation's message instead, exactly as the live order works.
From first message to a fixed answer
Open Reachlee AI → Playground
It's a tab in the Reachlee AI section, and a "Try it in Playground" button appears after you save Knowledge or Behavior. Choose where the message arrives: a DM, a comment on your latest post, or Messenger when a Facebook Page is selected.
Type as a contact would
"do you ship to Pune?", "price for 2?", "this is the second time my order is late". Messages can be up to 500 characters. The AI answers in the chat, or a short line explains why it stayed silent, such as "emoji or filler only" or "nothing in your knowledge answers this."
Open Why this reply
Under each reply, Why this reply shows the decision in order: how the message was read, which automations were checked, which knowledge sources were used, the goal applied, the voice in force, and what the guardrails did. You see which part to change instead of guessing.
Fix it with Teach it
If the answer is wrong or missing, click Teach it, write what it should have said in your own words, and press Save and ask again. The answer is saved to a knowledge source called Taught answers and the same question runs again, so you see the corrected reply straight away.
What the Playground shows you
Six things a second test account can't.
The real pipeline, not a demo
Each message goes through the same chain as a live DM: the classifier, your keyword and intent automations, your goals, your knowledge, the reply writer and the guardrails. Only the steps that depend on a real person are left out, such as the 24-hour window and the pause after you reply yourself.
Silence, explained
Most of what makes an AI safe is what it doesn't send. The Playground names the reason every time: personal chit-chat, spam, emoji or filler only, someone tagging a friend, a negative comment (the AI never argues in public), or nothing in your knowledge that answers it.
Guardrails you can watch
When a draft breaks a rule, you see it blocked and why: it quoted a price or a phone number that isn't in your knowledge, a public comment reply tried to carry a link, or your knowledge says LINK where a real link should be. Then you fix the knowledge, not the symptom.
Replay a real message
Pick one of the last 20 real messages your account received and see what the AI would say now, next to what it actually sent then, or that it sent nothing. After you teach it something, the replay shows the new answer beside the old one.
See it on the phone
Preview opens a phone beside the chat and shows the reply on the real screen it will appear on: an Instagram DM, a reply under your post, or a Messenger conversation on your Facebook Page. Useful for long answers and for checking the tone reads right in a small bubble.
Your test chats, kept
History keeps up to 20 chats per account in your browser, grouped by day and titled after the first message, so you can come back to a set of test questions after changing your knowledge. New chat starts clean; any chat can be deleted.
Testing live vs. testing in the Playground
| From a second Instagram account | Reachlee Playground | |
|---|---|---|
| Sends real messages | Yes | No |
| Explains why it replied or stayed silent | No | Yes, step by step |
| Adds test contacts and threads to your inbox | Yes | No |
| Works before AI Replies is switched on | No | Yes |
| Fixing a wrong answer | Edit knowledge, message again, wait | Teach it, then it asks again |
| Check against past real messages | No | Replay the last 20 inbound messages |
| AI credits | 1 per reply sent | 1 per reply; silence and automation previews are free |
When owners open the Playground
Before switching AI Replies on
You add your website and a price list, switch the AI on and hope. The first real customers become the test, and you find out about a gap when someone screenshots an awkward reply.
You run twenty of the questions you actually get (shipping, sizes, price for two, refunds) through the Playground first, spot the two your knowledge doesn't cover, teach them, and then switch AI Replies on.
After a price or policy change
The new price is on the website, but the old one is still in a pasted note in your knowledge. The AI keeps quoting it until a customer points it out.
You update the note, click Try it in Playground on the save message, ask "how much is it now?" and see the new number come back, with Why this reply showing which source it used.
When the AI missed one
A real contact asked whether you do gift wrapping. The AI stayed silent because nothing covered it, and you answered by hand. Next week someone asks again.
The conversation was flagged as Needs you with a Teach the AI link. It opens the Playground on that exact message; you write the answer once, see the AI use it, and the next contact who asks gets it within seconds.
The Playground is part of Reachlee AI on Growth, $14/mo.
Growth is $14/mo with 1,000 AI credits a month and everything in Pro. A Playground reply costs one credit, the same as a reply sent to a contact, so testing costs what the real thing costs; turns where the AI stays silent and previews of your automations are free, and test replies are kept out of your Activity feed and AI stats. Business, $29/mo, adds 2,500 credits, 5 team seats, 10 accounts and Google Sheets.
Get startedAI Playground questions
Does anything get sent to Instagram or Facebook?
No. The Playground runs the reply pipeline and shows you the result in the chat; it never sends a DM, posts a comment reply or writes to Messenger. It also doesn't create contacts, conversations or automation runs, and test replies stay out of your Activity feed and AI stats, so your real numbers aren't polluted by testing. The only thing it changes is your knowledge, and only when you click Teach it and save.
Why does a test reply cost a credit?
Because it does the same work as a real reply: the same models read the message and write the answer. Counting it the same way keeps the test honest about cost. Silence is free, as it is live, and so is a message that one of your automations would answer instead of the AI. On Growth's 1,000 credits a month, a thorough test session of a few dozen questions is a small fraction of the allowance.
Will the Playground answer exactly like the live AI?
It uses the same pipeline and your current knowledge, behavior, goals and automations, so the wording and decisions match what a contact would get now. A few checks depend on a real person and a real moment, and the Playground leaves those out on purpose: the 24-hour messaging window, the 48-hour pause after you reply yourself, the hourly send budget and the one-reply-per-commenter rule. If the AI or its replies are switched off, the trace notes it but you still get the answer.
Can I test comments and Facebook Messenger?
Yes. Switch between DMs and Comments to see a private reply or a public one; for a comment that shows buying intent, the Playground also shows the DM the AI would send. With a Facebook Page selected, you message the Page as a contact would and the answer uses that Page's own knowledge, so a Page and an Instagram account in the same workspace can be tested separately.
What happens when I click Teach it?
You get a box asking what it should have said. Write the answer in your own words and click Save and ask again. The text is saved to your knowledge in a source called Taught answers, used for real DMs from then on, and the same question runs again so you can confirm the AI now answers it. You can edit or remove taught answers later in Knowledge, like any other source.
Is there a limit on testing?
Each message can be up to 500 characters, and you can send 10 messages a minute, which is quick enough for any real test session. Replies use credits from the workspace's monthly allowance. History keeps your last 20 chats per account in the browser you used; it isn't shared with teammates or other devices.
Who can use the Playground?
Workspaces on Growth ($14/mo) or Business ($29/mo), where Reachlee AI is included, with at least one Instagram account or Facebook Page connected. On Free and Pro the Reachlee AI section shows what the AI does and how to upgrade. Keyword automations, comment-to-DM and the rest of Reachlee work on every plan without the AI.
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