You connected your account, the panel said "connected", the card looks green — and yet nothing arrives when your customers write. That can be the result of Meta's review process rather than your setup. This article explains what a Meta app is, what App Review changes, and how your account behaves before approval arrives.
What a Meta app is
Every tool that reaches Instagram or WhatsApp accounts from the outside runs through an app registered with Meta. The app is the name of the contract between you and Meta: which permissions it may request, where messages are sent and which rules it follows are all defined there.
In {{brand.name}} you don't have to set this app up. The permission screen you meet while connecting already belongs to the platform's app; you are never asked for a technical ID, key or address. Your only job is to approve the permissions.
💡 You may see three different interfaces while connecting: the Instagram sign-in, the Facebook business sign-in and the WhatsApp setup window. On Meta's side these correspond to separate apps, and approval is granted for each one separately. That distinction is the single most important fact in this article.
What App Review is
App Review is the review Meta runs before opening an app to live users. Meta assesses permissions not one by one but as a use case: it looks at what the app does, why it asks for the permissions and how it appears on screen. The process can take a few days or stretch into weeks; the decision is entirely Meta's.
When the review is done, each permission sits in one of two states:
Standard access — the permission is granted but works only for people who have a role on the app: the accounts that build, manage or test it.
Advanced access — the permission works for everyone. Only at this stage do your ordinary customers' messages reach you.
Who can message you before approval
This is the most misunderstood part, so let's be plain: if a permission is only at Standard access, the work that depends on it runs only for people who have a role on the app.
In practice this is what happens:
You test from your own second account and the message arrives. You assume everything works.
A customer writes; the message appears on Instagram but never reaches the panel.
The inbox stays empty, automations aren't triggered, and no error is shown anywhere.
⚠️ Note: This is not a restriction of {{brand.name}}. It is the same for every tool built on Meta's platform and it is lifted only by Meta's approval. Redoing your setup, deleting and reconnecting the account, or trying another browser changes nothing.
Approval status depends on the connection path
Because approval is granted per app, which path an Instagram account is connected through directly affects the outcome:
An account connected with Instagram is subject to the approval status of the app on Instagram's side.
An account connected through a Facebook Page is subject to the approval status of the app on Facebook's side.
So messages can arrive perfectly on one path and not at all on the other. Switching paths also changes this picture; read Changing the connection path before you decide.
What each section says while approval is pending
{{brand.name}} does not present a missing approval as a fault; the section waits quietly and the channel's state is not damaged.
Insights — the section opens but shows "no data" or "waiting for permission" instead of numbers. The card stays green.
Publishing — a scheduled post isn't published, the job waits in the queue and appears in the "waiting for permission" state. The day the permission arrives, it publishes by itself.
Inbox — because no message ever arrives, the screen looks empty; no error is shown.
The connection card — stays Active. A missing approval doesn't break the connection itself, which is why messages can be absent while the card is green.
This behaviour is deliberate: approval can take weeks, and painting the panel red for all that time helps nobody.
What you can do
First confirm the permissions are complete. If you switched one off while connecting, the problem is yours and not the approval; reconnect the account and grant them all.
Test the right way. Writing from your own account, or from one with a role on the app, is misleading. Ask for a test message from someone with no connection to you.
Review the connection path. If the other path has a different approval status, moving there may solve it.
Contact our Support team. We can tell you where the approval process stands.
A concrete example
You have a jewellery brand. You connected your account through a Facebook Page and, to test it, had your partner send a DM from their phone; it arrived, so you assumed everything worked. For a week the inbox stayed empty, while 40 new messages had piled up in the Instagram app.
The reason: your partner's account was one that had been added to the app for testing; the other 40 people were not. There was nothing wrong with your connection, the permissions were complete and the card was green. The fix was to move to the path that was approved, or wait for approval.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Testing with your own account and trusting the result. Accounts with a role work even before approval, which is exactly why the test misleads.
Setting the connection up over and over. Approval status has nothing to do with the connection; reconnecting doesn't change it.
Assuming a green card means no problem. Connection health and message flow are two different things.