Hey there,

in our business, we use Instagram chat automations to get our leads through a funnel series of questions. Our customers know the messages are bot-created. The message automations include automated follow-ups, when no reply is sent by the customer. However, we offer human support, when a keyword is sent. The issue we’re facing is that there seems to be no feature in Manychat to pause automations. Whenever the keyword is sent, all automations should be paused until an agent has analyzed the situation, answered the questions and put the lead back into the right position in the automation (the funnel is split into different steps that can be triggered manually). This feature exists for when an agent sends a message manually. But I want to trigger such a pause via a keyword. 

My workaround at the moment is to Instagram-Opt-Out, when the keyword is sent, wait 24 hours (longer than any delay in all automations) and then Instagram-Opt-In again. To be able to answer earlier than 24 hours after the keyword is sent, I have set up a Tag-triggered Rule that Instagram-Opts-In the contact again. Unfortunately, the chat does not refresh instantly, so I always have to leave the specific chat and get back to it again to be able to message them.

Has anyone come up with a better solution to this problem? Are there any plans for an automation-based automation pause feature?

Best regards

Jannis H.