Mention trigger

A customer wrote "@youraccount do you have these?" under a friend's post. To see that comment you either work through your notifications one by one or rely on luck. The Mention trigger catches those comments and writes an automatic answer underneath. But it behaves noticeably differently from the other triggers: Instagram does not reveal who mentioned you, so the flow runs bound to the account rather than to a person. This guide explains what that difference means and how to build the flow around it.

⚠️ Note: this trigger works on Instagram only, and a flow whose only trigger is a mention cannot send a private message. The pre-publish check says it plainly: "A flow started by a mention cannot send a direct message (Instagram does not reveal who mentioned you); the reply can only go under the comment."

In this article you will find:

• What it does
• What the missing identity changes
• Building the trigger
• Fields and buttons
• How it relates to the comment trigger
• Limits and known issues
• Common mistakes and how to fix them

What it does

The trigger listens for your account being named with an @ in someone else's post or comment. Comments on your own posts do not reach it; those belong to the post comment trigger.

There are two common uses. The first is recommendation comments: someone tags you while recommending you to a friend, and you leave a short answer such as "Thank you! Feel free to DM us with any questions." The second is question comments: a potential customer shows their interest and you put the answer somewhere visible.

The text of the comment you were mentioned in becomes the flow's input. So the "if this word appears, say that" rule is not built inside the trigger but with a Condition step in the flow: pick the Last reply rule type and look for the word there.

What the missing identity changes

For this event Instagram sends only the post and comment IDs; it does not say who mentioned you. That is a limit on Meta's side and it applies to every tool using their interface. The consequences are:

• No private message can be sent. Message, card, gallery, list and media steps do not run in this flow; there is nobody to send to.
• The reply can only go under the comment. Add the Reply to comment step; the answer is posted under the post you were mentioned in.
• The flow runs bound to the account. Every mention passes through a single system contact per channel. There is no real person with a name, a phone number or tags.
• The re-entry rule is never applied. The Can the same person enter again? setting on the Settings tab does nothing in this flow. If it did, because every mention shares one system contact, a setting of "once a day" would answer exactly one mention per day and silently swallow the rest.
• Contact conditions are meaningless. Tag, field and follow conditions cannot be filled in this flow, so do not use them.

Because the re-entry rule does not apply, you have to build the cap somewhere else: add a Condition step and use the trigger counter rule. The counter works independently of the person and says "this step may run at most this many times in this period"; that is the right cap for mention flows.

The AI step does one more special thing here: it can read the image of the post you were mentioned in. There is no image in the person's message, but there is one in the post, and the step downloads it at call time.

Building the trigger

Let us build a flow for a hair salon that answers recommendation comments.

1. Open an empty flow with New automation from the Automations list.
2. On the Flow tab, click the When… box on the canvas.
3. Press Add trigger in the panel on the side.
4. Pick Mention from the list.
5. If your account has more than one channel connected, pick the Instagram account from the Channel list.
6. Connect the start box's Next output to a Condition step.
7. Add a rule: type Last reply, operator contains, value appointment. That way you only answer comments asking about appointments.
8. Connect the condition's True output to a Reply to comment step and write "You can book through the link in our profile 💛".
9. Connect the False output to a second Reply to comment step with a shorter thank-you.
10. To build the cap, put one more Condition step at the start of the flow and use the trigger counter.
11. Press Publish at the top right. Your automation is now running.

Because you used no Message step, the pre-publish check does not raise the private-message warning. If you do see that warning, there is still a sending step in the flow.

Fields and buttons

Mention is the trigger with the fewest settings. Its card holds two items.

Channel — Which account the trigger runs on. It appears only when more than one channel is connected. With several Instagram accounts, building one automation per account reads better than picking a channel inside a single flow.

Remove — The cross at the top right of the card deletes the trigger.

There are no keyword, match mode, post selection or exclude fields here. You build the word filter with a condition step in the flow, and the post distinction with a condition too (the Post rule).

How it relates to the comment trigger

On Instagram's newer connection route a mention does not arrive as its own event: it is carried inside the comment notification. The panel recognises those notifications and marks them as mentions.

The practical result is this: on such an event both your comment triggers and your mention trigger become candidates, and the specificity score picks the winner. A comment trigger that has a keyword or a chosen post scores higher than an "every mention" trigger and beats it.

So keeping both flows on one account causes no trouble; the narrower one decides. Even so, if you want mentioned comments on your own posts to go to the comment flow and mentions on other people's posts to come here, do not skip choosing a post in your comment trigger.

The text of the comment you were mentioned in is fetched with a separate request. If it cannot be read the flow still starts, but the input stays empty and your word condition does not match.

Limits and known issues

• The trigger works on Instagram only.
• No private message can be sent: message, card, gallery, list, media and template steps do not run in this flow. This is a limit on Meta's side (the mentioner's identity is not provided).
• The answer can only be written with the Reply to comment step, under the post you were mentioned in.
• The re-entry rule is not applied; build the cap with the trigger counter.
• Contact-based conditions (tag, field, follow) are not filled in this flow.
• If the mentioned comment's text cannot be read, the flow continues without text.
• The warning appears only when a mention is the only trigger in the flow. If the flow also has, say, a keyword trigger, the person arriving that way is identified and a message can go out, so the check stays quiet.
• Hide and delete comment actions only work on comments under your own posts; you cannot moderate a comment on someone else's post.
• The trigger only runs while the automation is Live.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

• Putting a message step in the flow. This is the most common mistake. The pre-publish check warns about it but does not block publishing; the flow stays live and the message steps never run. Remove the sending steps and use Reply to comment instead.
• Trusting the re-entry rule. The setting does nothing here. If dozens of mentions land on one post, every one of them gets an answer. Always add the counter condition.
• Building segments from the contact tag. The contact record in this flow is not a real customer; tagging it only pollutes your contacts list.
• Expecting comments on your own posts. Those go to the comment trigger. Do not mix the two up.
• Writing a long answer. The reply under the comment is public; long text clogs the post's comment thread. One or two sentences are enough.
• Expecting contact details in the simulator. When you test this event on the Test tab the contact card stays empty; that is the correct behaviour.

If you have followed every step and no reply is posted, see the no reply is posted under the comment guide or get in touch with our Support team.

Related articles

• Post comment trigger
• Reply to comment step
• Trigger counter
• Story mention trigger
• No reply is posted under the comment