ReachleeCan you send a broadcast DM on Instagram?
Only to people who messaged you.
"Instagram broadcast" usually means one of three things: the broadcast channel feature in the app, one DM to every follower, or one message sent to many people at once. Only the last exists for businesses, and only for people who have messaged you. Here is exactly who that includes, how the 24-hour rule decides it, and how to send one without putting your account at risk.
The short answer
No, not to all your followers. Instagram's official messaging API has no endpoint for messaging followers, and a business can't send the first message. You can send one message or sequence to many people at once if each of them has messaged you: everyone who wrote in the last 24 hours gets it immediately, and anyone else gets it the next time they message you while the campaign is open. People who only commented can't be included.
Three things people mean by an Instagram broadcast
The word covers three different requests, and only one of them is something a business account can do through Meta's API. The first is broadcast channels: the one-to-many channels creators open inside the Instagram app, which followers choose to join. They are a separate Instagram product, not part of the messaging API that businesses and their tools use, so there is no compliant way to automate them. The second is a mass DM to every follower. It is what most people actually want, and it is the thing the platform deliberately doesn't offer: there is no follower-messaging endpoint, so a tool that advertises it is typing messages through a logged-in session, which is exactly what Instagram's anti-automation systems look for. The third is one message sent to many people who already talk to you. This one exists. Meta lets a business message a person within 24 hours of that person's last message, so a campaign can go to everyone inside that window at once and pick up the rest as they come back. It is narrower than a blast, and it is aimed at the people most likely to act on what you send.
- Broadcast channels: an in-app creator feature, outside the business API, not automatable by any tool.
- A DM to every follower: not possible through the official API, for any tool at any price.
- A campaign to contacts who messaged you: allowed within the 24-hour rule, on Instagram and on Facebook Pages.
Who a campaign can reach, by contact status
| Who they are | Status in Reachlee | Gets a campaign? |
|---|---|---|
| Messaged you in the last 24 hours | Active | Yes, as soon as you send |
| Messaged you before, more than 24 hours ago | Inactive | When they next message you, while the campaign is open |
| Commented or interacted, never sent a DM | Pending | No. A comment earns one private reply, not a conversation |
| Asked to stop, or you opted them out | Opted out | Never |
| Follows you but never interacted | Not a contact | No. There is no conversation to send it into |
The 24-hour window is Meta's rule for every tool on the official API, on Instagram and in Facebook Messenger. A DM, a story reply or a tap on one of your buttons all count as the person messaging you.
Why every official-API tool works under the same rule.
None of this is a Reachlee setting. These are the platform facts any compliant broadcast has to work within.
No follower-messaging endpoint
The messaging API addresses people by IDs that only exist inside conversations your account already has. A follower who never messaged you has no conversation, so there is nothing for a tool to send to. That is also why a list of usernames can't be imported and messaged, by Reachlee or anyone else.
A comment is not a conversation
A comment on your post or reel earns exactly one private reply, within 7 days of the comment, and that reply doesn't open a messaging window. Commenters stay Pending until they reply or tap a button. The 24-hour window guide walks through what opens the window and what only looks like it does.
The clock belongs to the person
The 24 hours run from the person's last message, not from yours. Sending more doesn't extend it; only their reply does. So a campaign's reach depends on how many people are talking to you at the moment, which is why Keep it open waits for people to come back rather than chasing them.
Pacing is part of compliance
Even inside the window, hundreds of DMs in the same minute look like a bot. Reachlee sends campaign messages gradually over the first minutes, and pauses an account automatically when Meta signals it to slow down. Nobody has to pick a safe speed.
Messenger has the same core rule
Facebook Pages work under a 24-hour standard messaging window in Messenger too. Meta adds narrow exceptions there, such as message tags for specific non-promotional updates and paid Sponsored Messages, but no free broadcast to everyone who ever messaged a Page. The Messenger 24-hour rule lists them.
Leaving has to be easy
Anyone who asks to stop, or whom you opt out, is skipped by every automation, campaign and AI reply until you opt them back in. A campaign can end on an Opt out step for a "stop" answer, so the person who wants out gets out in one tap instead of having to block you.
How to send a compliant broadcast with Reachlee.
Start from contacts, not followers
Open Contacts. Everyone who has commented, messaged, replied to a story or answered an automation is already there, with a status that says whether you can message them right now. Choose who should hear from you by folder (a list you fill by hand) or by segment (a saved filter, such as everyone active in the last 7 days).
Send to whoever is reachable now
Create a campaign, pick that audience, build the message and click Send campaign. The confirmation says how many people get it right away, which is everyone Active, before anything is sent. Messages then go out gradually over the first minutes.
Keep it open for the rest
With Keep it open (Pro, 7 days by default, up to 30), Inactive contacts in the audience wait, and each one gets the campaign the moment they message you. When the days run out, anyone still waiting is marked as never became reachable in time and the campaign finishes.
Grow the reachable list for next time
Every comment-to-DM automation, keyword reply and story-reply automation starts conversations. A comment automation whose first DM has a button turns each commenter who taps it from Pending into someone who has messaged you, so the next campaign with Keep it open reaches them as soon as they write again.
Broadcast jobs, done the way the platform allows.
Announcing a launch
You want to DM all 20,000 followers that your course is open. There is no button for it, and the tools that claim to do it work by logging into your account.
You send a campaign to the contacts who asked about the course. Those who messaged in the last day get it within minutes, and Keep it open delivers it to the rest as they write to you over the following weeks. Followers hear about it from the post, and every comment on the launch post gets the link from a comment-to-DM automation.
A weekly offer to engaged contacts
You copy the same message into every thread that looks active, forget who got it last week, and sometimes send it to the same person twice.
A segment of contacts who messaged you in the last 7 days, your Customers folder excluded, Skip recently reached on. Each week's campaign goes to warm contacts who haven't heard from you in three days, and the results show who clicked.
Reaching people who went quiet
Thousands of people messaged you last year. You want to tell them about a sale, but their windows closed months ago.
You can't message them until they write again, and no compliant tool can. A campaign with Keep it open reaches any of them who come back within 30 days. For everyone else, the email or phone number you captured while the window was open is the channel that still works.
Campaigns are free to build and send.
Reachlee campaigns work on every plan: build any sequence, preview it, test it on yourself, and send now to everyone reachable at that moment, within Free's 1,000 DMs a month. Pro at $9/mo adds Keep it open for up to 30 days, scheduling, contact filters and A/B splits, with unlimited DMs. Growth at $14/mo adds Reachlee AI steps, and Business at $29/mo adds Add to Google Sheet. Facebook Pages are available from Pro.
Start freeInstagram broadcast messages — FAQ
Is there any way to DM all my Instagram followers at once?
Not through Instagram's official API, which is what every compliant tool uses. A follow isn't a message, and Meta doesn't let a business send the first one, so followers who never messaged you can't be reached by DM at all. The reach you do have is the people who have messaged you, and a campaign covers them. The full reasoning, with the two exceptions Meta allows, is in the guide below.
Will a mass DM tool get my account banned?
Tools that promise to message all your followers can't do it through the API, so they drive a logged-in session instead, typing messages the way a person would. That is the pattern Instagram's anti-automation systems are built to detect, and the penalties land on your account: action blocks, restrictions or worse. A campaign through the official API never contacts anyone outside the rules and paces its sends, so the risk is of a different kind entirely.
How many people can one campaign reach?
Everyone in its audience who is reachable: all Active contacts as soon as you send, plus Inactive ones who message you while it's open. The send dialog shows the immediate number before you confirm, and the results show Reachable as a share of the audience. That number depends on how many conversations your account is having, which is why it grows when automations keep new conversations coming in.
What happens to people who are Inactive?
They wait. With Keep it open on (Pro and above), an Inactive contact gets the campaign the moment they next message you, for 7 days by default and up to 30. If they don't write in that time, the results list them as never became reachable in time. On Free there is no waiting list: a campaign goes to the people who are reachable when you send it.
Can I message people who commented on my posts?
Not with a campaign, because a comment isn't a conversation, so commenters are Pending. What works is a comment-to-DM automation: it sends one private reply to each comment, within 7 days of it. If the person taps a button or replies, they have messaged you, which makes them reachable for 24 hours and by any open campaign whenever they write again. Retrigger runs an automation on comments from the past 7 days that arrived before it went live.
Do story replies count as messaging me?
Yes. On Instagram, replying to your story, reacting to it or mentioning you in a story opens the same 24-hour window as a DM. A story with a question or a "reply for the link" prompt is the quickest compliant way to make many contacts reachable right before or during a campaign. Facebook Pages don't send story events, so this works on Instagram only.
Is it the same on Facebook Pages?
The core rule is the same: a Page can message a person freely within 24 hours of their last message in Messenger, and a comment earns one private reply. Meta adds narrow Messenger exceptions, such as message tags for order or event updates and paid Sponsored Messages, but no free broadcast to everyone who ever messaged the Page. Reachlee campaigns on a Page stay inside the 24-hour window and don't use message tags.
Instagram