A comment with abuse, a competitor's advert or plain wrong information has landed under your post, and you do not want to clear it by hand. Comment actions automatically hide or delete the comment that started the flow. This article covers two actions — and — and keeps you from publishing the irreversible one by accident.
Hide comment
Delete comment
⚠️ Note: Both actions work only on Instagram and only in flows that start from a comment. In a flow with no comment context the step is skipped quietly and the reason is written to the session log. On WhatsApp-only accounts these actions never appear in the list.
In this article you will find:
Hide comment
Delete comment
Giving the deletion confirmation
When the actions are skipped
Deleting versus the private reply
A concrete example: comment cleanup
Limits and known issues
Common mistakes
Hide comment
The Hide comment action removes the comment that started the flow from under the post. A hidden comment is not deleted: it stays visible only to its author. Because the author keeps seeing their own comment, they do not react with "they deleted me"; everyone else cannot see it.
In the action step, press Add action.
Choose Hide comment as the kind.
Pick one of the options in the Action box:
Hide — Hides the comment.
Unhide — Makes a previously hidden comment public again.
Having one action work in both directions makes life easier: when you change your mind or a customer objects, you do not have to look for a separate action.
Hiding is reversible, which is why it asks for no confirmation. When in doubt, hide instead of deleting.
Delete comment
The Delete comment action removes the comment from Instagram permanently. It is the only irreversible operation in the panel.
Choose Delete comment as the kind.
Read the red warning: "Deletion cannot be undone."
Tick the confirmation box (see the next section).
A deleted comment cannot be restored, cannot be hidden afterwards and cannot be replied to privately.
Giving the deletion confirmation
A deletion action cannot be published until the confirmation box is ticked. The pre-publish check reports this as an error and the Publish button does nothing.
Tap the I understand the comment will be permanently deleted box under the action.
The panel opens a separate window: Deleting a comment cannot be undone. It states that when the flow runs, the comment is permanently deleted from Instagram and that the reversible option is Hide comment.
Confirm. The box becomes ticked.
If you change your mind the box stays unticked; the action remains in the step but the flow cannot be published. The reason is plain: a deletion action copied from a ready-made template must not reach production unnoticed.
The confirmation is not the only gate; there is a second one at run time. Even if an unconfirmed deletion action somehow reached production, the engine would not apply it and would write the skip reason to the log.
When the actions are skipped
Both actions pass without doing anything in the following cases. The reason for each is written to the session log as its own line — there is no silent skipping.
No comment context. The flow started from a keyword, a story reply or an ad link, so there is no comment to moderate.
The comment-moderation limit for this session was reached. At most two comment operations happen in one session.
The deletion is unconfirmed. With the confirmation box unticked, the action is not applied.
The channel does not support comment moderation. WhatsApp-only accounts have no concept of a comment.
The comment was already deleted. Once a deletion succeeds in the same session the comment is gone, and a second comment action does nothing.
If Instagram rejects the operation, the log line reads Not delivered, not "Comment hidden". That is deliberate: work that was not done must not look done in the record.
Deleting versus the private reply
There is an important rule in flows that start from a comment: you have one private DM per comment, and that right is attached to the comment. If you delete the comment, you lose the right with it.
That is why the pre-publish check warns you when the same flow holds both a Delete comment action and a message step. The warning works bluntly — it does not look at whether the deletion comes before or after the message — but the question it asks is real: will the message actually be able to go out?
The right order is: reply first, delete afterwards. If you want a DM to reach the person, put the message steps before the deletion action. Or choose to hide instead of deleting; a hidden comment stays where it is, so your private reply right stays with it.
A concrete example: comment cleanup
A cosmetics brand clears competitors' adverts from under its posts like this:
The start holds a comment trigger; the scope is All posts and the keywords are the competing brands' names.
The first step is an Action step:
Hide comment · Hide
Increase/decrease field:spam_comments, +1
Notify the team: "A competitor advert was hidden — check the post."
Then a Condition step: "Field · spam_comments · greater than · 4" → if the same person has written for the fifth time, an Add tag action marks them with to-block.
The brand hides rather than deletes: no argument starts and the decision can always be reversed. Thanks to the counter, persistent accounts are also flagged separately.
Limits and known issues
Both actions work only on Instagram and are only meaningful in flows that start from a comment.
At most two comment operations happen in one session.
Delete comment cannot be published until the confirmation box is ticked.
A deleted comment cannot be restored and cannot be replied to privately.
Hiding and deleting only work on comments under your own posts.
If the same flow holds a deletion and a message step, the pre-publish check raises a warning.
The two are separate plan features; if your plan does not cover one, the session stops at that step.
Up to the first 500 characters of the comment's text are written to the session log; that is how you tell afterwards which comment was handled.
Common mistakes
Mistaking deleting for hiding. Deleting cannot be undone. When in doubt, hide.
Putting a comment action in a flow that does not start from a comment. The step is skipped quietly; the flow looks like it works but the comment is not cleared.
Trying to send a message after a deletion. Deleting the comment takes the private reply right with it; move the message earlier.
Skipping the confirmation box and trying to publish. Publishing is blocked.
Expecting a third comment operation in one session. The limit is two.
Not reviewing a deletion action copied from a template. Always check deletion actions when adapting a ready-made flow.
If a comment action is not working, read the skip reason on the Logs tab first; if the problem persists, contact our Support team.