Glossary
Human agent tag
The human agent tag (human_agent) lets a real person on the business side answer a user's message up to 7 days after it was sent, beyond the standard messaging window. Meta allows it only for human support in cases the standard window cannot cover, such as a business closed over the weekend. Human Agent is a separate feature an app has to request in Meta's App Review.
What it is for
Meta's platform overview describes the allowed use as human agent support when a user's issue cannot be resolved inside the standard messaging window. The examples Meta gives are a business that is closed for the weekend and an issue that needs more than 24 hours to resolve. The messaging guide adds that a human-only inbox must show people's messages correctly and let agents reply from it.
What it is not for
The tag gives a person more time to type an answer. Automated follow-ups, broadcasts and promotional messages sent after the 24-hour messaging window closed are outside the use Meta describes. A tool that promises automated messages days after the last reply is either using the tag outside its purpose or relying on something other than Meta's API.
How it relates to automation tools
An automation can hand a conversation to a person, and that person may then use the tag if the app has the feature. Elevion does not use the human agent tag, so every message it sends, automated or typed in its inbox, goes out inside the standard window. Replies after that are best written in the Instagram app.
For how this fits into the whole flow from comment to DM, read How comment-to-DM automation works.
Sources
- Meta for Developers: Instagram Platform overview
- Meta for Developers: Instagram API with Instagram Login: Send Messages
- Meta for Developers: App Review for the Instagram Platform
Checked against Meta's documentation on 2026-10-20. Meta changes its rules from time to time, so its pages are the final word.
