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Instagram DM Keyword Branching without Buttons/AI — Condition ignores user's text reply

  • May 7, 2026
  • 1 comment
  • 29 views
Artem4iks

Hi everyone,

I need help with an Instagram DM flow where I want to read a user's natural text reply and branch based on keywords — without using Quick Replies or AI Step.

Setup:
- After my question message, I added a User Input block to capture the reply.
- Immediately after that, I placed a Condition block that checks if the reply contains "expensive" (or similar keywords) to branch into objection handling vs. WhatsApp request.
- I tried both saving the reply to a custom field and referencing {{last_input_text}} in the Condition.

Problem:
No matter what the user types, the Condition always takes the "No" branch. It seems like the user's reply text is not available at the time the Condition checks it.

Question:
What is the correct setup to capture a text reply in an Instagram DM flow and make it available for keyword-based branching in a following Condition block? Are there any specific settings in the User Input or Condition that I'm missing?

I'm currently on ManyChat Pro.

Thank you in advance!

Best answer by Fabio Gaulke

Hi, ​@Artem4iks!

 

Made a test here and it's working as expected…

  • Use the Data Collection block to save the reply to a custom user field (TEST_FIELD_1
  • Set a condition step and add different conditions to each keywork you wish to check
  • And then you define the flow according to the condition

 

 

It will work like this:

“Ftcond” is the test trigger keyword

 

Hope this helps!!

    1 reply

    Fabio Gaulke
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    • Fabio Gaulke
    • Community Moderator
    • Answer
    • May 11, 2026

    Hi, ​@Artem4iks!

     

    Made a test here and it's working as expected…

    • Use the Data Collection block to save the reply to a custom user field (TEST_FIELD_1
    • Set a condition step and add different conditions to each keywork you wish to check
    • And then you define the flow according to the condition

     

     

    It will work like this:

    “Ftcond” is the test trigger keyword

     

    Hope this helps!!

    @fabio.gaulke | @monada.ag
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