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Automations for Close Friends Posts

  • Oct 8, 2026 2:54 PM UTC
  • 4 comments
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Wrapped by Carrie

Does anyone know if Manychat works for close friends posts? I’m just trying to test out whether or not manychat will work using an external redirect link and don’t want to post this publicly. Thank you!

Best answer by Fabio Gaulke

Hi ​@Carrie 

 

Manychat cannot detect or list specific Close Friends posts in the post selection menu because Meta's API does not expose Close Friends privacy settings to third-party tools.

However, if your primary goal is to test your automation and external redirect links without publishing a public post, here are a few effective ways to test:

  1. Use the Flow Builder Preview: Inside the Manychat Flow Builder, click the Preview button in the top right corner and select "Preview on Instagram". This delivers the interactive flow directly to your Instagram DMs so you can test the buttons and redirect links without making a post.

  2. Set up a DM Keyword Trigger: Create an automation triggered by a specific test keyword (such as "TEST123") under Instagram DM triggers. You can then DM that keyword to your account from a personal or test profile to test the experience end-to-end.

  3. Close Friends Stories: If you prefer testing with Stories instead of posts, you can post a Close Friends Story. If your trigger is set to "All Stories" (or uses keyword detection), replies to Close Friends Stories will trigger the automation.

 

Hope this helps! 🙌

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4 replies

cata_rendon
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  • Community Moderator
  • Oct 9, 2026 5:22 PM UTC

Hi, for organic posts in IG the only trigger that can active the automation should be a key word. 

On the other hand, if you want your friends to test your  IG´s conversational funnel you can create a IG Ref URL, so they can clic on it an interact with you bot

 https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281276006684-Instagram-Ref-URL-Trigger

Hope this helps

Cata Rendón


Fabio Gaulke
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  • Community Moderator
  • Answer
  • Oct 9, 2026 5:32 PM UTC

Hi ​@Carrie 

 

Manychat cannot detect or list specific Close Friends posts in the post selection menu because Meta's API does not expose Close Friends privacy settings to third-party tools.

However, if your primary goal is to test your automation and external redirect links without publishing a public post, here are a few effective ways to test:

  1. Use the Flow Builder Preview: Inside the Manychat Flow Builder, click the Preview button in the top right corner and select "Preview on Instagram". This delivers the interactive flow directly to your Instagram DMs so you can test the buttons and redirect links without making a post.

  2. Set up a DM Keyword Trigger: Create an automation triggered by a specific test keyword (such as "TEST123") under Instagram DM triggers. You can then DM that keyword to your account from a personal or test profile to test the experience end-to-end.

  3. Close Friends Stories: If you prefer testing with Stories instead of posts, you can post a Close Friends Story. If your trigger is set to "All Stories" (or uses keyword detection), replies to Close Friends Stories will trigger the automation.

 

Hope this helps! 🙌


Wrapped by Carrie

Thank you both! I ended up just posting a test publicly and made sure to quickly test the functionality before archiving the post again. Don’t think many (if any) of my followers saw it and, great news, all the layered redirects worked properly! I needed to test specifically on a non-mobile device. 


cata_rendon
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  • Community Moderator
  • Oct 11, 2026 8:12 PM UTC

Thank you both! I ended up just posting a test publicly and made sure to quickly test the functionality before archiving the post again. Don’t think many (if any) of my followers saw it and, great news, all the layered redirects worked properly! I needed to test specifically on a non-mobile device. 

I am glad you solved it 😀