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Hi everyone – I’m building an AI-powered Instagram DM assistant in ManyChat (Pro plan) for a coffee shop, and I need help bypassing the built-in “Default Reply” greeting so that the very first customer message goes directly into my ChatGPT action. Here’s what I’ve set up and where I’m stuck:

 

 

1) What I’ve Built

 

  • Automation type: Instagram Default Reply (Automations → Basic → Default Reply)

  • Trigger: User sends a Direct Message

  • Canvas flow:

     

    1. Default Reply (pink card that says “Hey, how can I help you?”)

    2. AI Step (ChatGPT integration with my full FAQ-style context & system prompt)

    3. Send Message ({{response}})

 

This consistently returns perfect context-driven answers… but only after the user sees the greeting and has to re-ask their question.

 

 

2) The Problem

 

  • First DM: User writes “What milk do you offer?” → Bot replies “Hey, how can I help you?”

  • Second DM: User must repeat “What milk do you offer?” → Bot finally returns “We have Whole, Oat, Almond, Soy, Coconut…”

 

I want the first customer question to go straight to the ChatGPT action without ever firing the generic greeting.

 

 

3) What I’ve Tried

 

  1. Delete the Default Reply card entirely → the flow never triggers on a DM.

  2. “Automate conversations with AI” template → forces keyword/intent rules and still prompts a greeting step or intent matching.

  3. Dug into the hidden Flows builder (three-node UI) → can’t remove the legacy greeting card or run ChatGPT on the first message.

 

e User sends “What milk do you offer?” ]  
            ↓  
/ AI Step (ChatGPT) ]  
            ↓  
Send Message: “We offer Whole, Oat, Almond…” ]

 

No “Hey, how can I help you?” banner, no second DM needed—just a single ask → answer.

 

 

5) My Ask

 

  1. Has anyone found a way to keep “User sends a Direct Message” as the trigger and entirely skip or disable the Default Reply greeting card?

  2. Is there a hidden toggle, Flow setting, or alternate template that lets us “shunt” the first DM directly into an AI Step?

  3. If it’s truly not possible today, what workaround or best practice can you recommend for seamless 1-step question → AI answer flows on Instagram?

 

Any pointers, screen grabs of your own setup, or creative ideas would be hugely appreciated — thank you!

Hello ​@eli45 ,
I recommend trying the following:
Edit your default response flow by removing the initial fixed greeting message and keeping only the AI Step.
Within the AI Step, customize the prompt by letting the AI know what your initial message should be. To do this, send the user's last message as context. Something like:
 

 

How would we trigger the bot to respond to the Instagram message?

 

You already have an AI step added that replies on Instagram, correct?
Simply include the user's latest text input in that AI step, so the AI knows which message the user was responding to.
Since you mentioned that the bot is replying with an initial greeting, if that greeting is outside of the AI step, just remove it.
If the out-of-context greeting is being sent by the AI itself, once you include the user's latest input, it should work properly, as the AI will then have the user's message for context.

That worked perfectly thank you so much !!!!!

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