{"id":136206,"date":"2019-05-15T15:41:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T13:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=136206"},"modified":"2025-07-01T21:57:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:57:38","slug":"guide-to-instagram-automation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/guide-to-instagram-automation\/","title":{"rendered":"Your guide to Instagram automation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Instagram\"<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019re up to your eyeballs in scheduling, responding, and #engaging obligations, Instagram<\/strong> isn\u2019t quite as fun as it used to be.<\/p>\n

If you care about engagement, you A: need to post regularly<\/strong>. And B: need to post at the right times.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s no wonder that there are countless tools on the market for automating everything from following other users to scheduling posts. There are even tools for commenting on your behalf.<\/p>\n

But when does automation veer into the danger zone? It’s hard to say. Here, we’ll look at some of the platforms available ranging from the legit to the not-so-much.<\/p>\n

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What is Instagram automation?<\/h2>\n

There are countless Instagram automation tools that claim to save you time, energy, and make you more popular in the process. But, they all offer a slightly different feature lineup. Some are paid, others, like Bot4Gram<\/a>, are free.<\/p>\n

The simplest way to define Instagram automation apps is that these are tools that take care of your in-app busy work for you. There\u2019s a varying range OF price points, features, and customization settings. It\u2019s a matter of “you get what you pay for” in a lot of cases.<\/p>\n

For example, the now-defunct Instagress was designed to comment on your behalf. A HootSuite blogger shared their experience with the tool<\/a>. The blogger mentions that you\u2019d choose a set of comments that a bot could use<\/strong> to \u201cengage\u201d with other users.<\/p>\n

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Sad news to all of you who fell in love with Instagress: by request of Instagram we’ve closed our web-service that helped you so much. pic.twitter.com\/sIRYfFVywX<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Instagress (@instagress) April 20, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Postable <\/a>is another option, and it is still around. However, it is still in beta. This tool allows users to pre-schedule posts, connect your account to DropBox, Google Drive, and other cloud-based storage tools, and automate engagement. Postable does manage follows and unfollows, as well as giveaways, but they don\u2019t comment for you or dig into the DMs.<\/p>\n

Postable costs a few bucks per month, but they aren’t a bad option if you need a helping hand.<\/p>\n

Instagram schedulers are NOT the same as automation bots<\/h2>\n

\"Instagram<\/p>\n

There are Instagram scheduling apps like Buffer<\/a> and Sprout Social<\/a> that \u201cautomate\u201d when posts go out, so you can set it and forget it, then review the analytics down the road.<\/p>\n

Then you have Later<\/strong><\/a>, an Instagram scheduler with additional features. There\u2019s Plann<\/strong><\/a>, too. This is the app that helps you arrange and preschedule posts<\/strong>, though you\u2019re the architect in control here.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to understand that there\u2019s a big difference between apps that automate scheduling posts and apps that have a bot component.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most marketing blogs have arrived at a common consensus. Brands should not automate IG comments or DMs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth pointing out that any user who is caught trying to cheat the system is in violation of Instagram\u2019s terms of service <\/a>so you might get booted from the app.<\/p>\n

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7 underrated Instagram apps you need to know about<\/p>\r\n Read Now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

Automating likes vs. automating comments and DMs<\/h2>\n

Instagram automation works by outsourcing specific tasks to bots. So, you might automate comments, likes, and following and unfollowing accounts.<\/p>\n

Automating likes is basically the equivalent of paying Instagram for a sponsored ad. It\u2019s an opportunity to be seen by hundreds of people who otherwise wouldn\u2019t find you.<\/p>\n

Marketers are getting wise to the idea that people are gaming the system. Bots can search for users in your niche and follow them, as well as follow people who have followed you.<\/p>\n

You can also automatically unfollow people who haven\u2019t engaged with your site in a while \u2014 you know, the ones dragging down your engagement rates.<\/p>\n

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How to earn money with Instagram<\/p>\r\n Read now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

Can you automate Instagram without it being scammy?<\/h2>\n

\"Instagram<\/p>\n

Okay, it\u2019s honestly hard to tell. Services like Postable and Social Captain<\/a> are paid services. They offer as much functionality as the type of tools that an SEO pro might use to look up keywords<\/strong>. They also offer what a PR expert might use to identify influencers<\/strong> and publications to partner with.<\/p>\n

Features like automated follows and unfollows are unlikely to cause too many problems down the line, but they do violate Instagram\u2019s ToS.<\/p>\n

Social Captain, for example, offers a set of automation settings you can set and forget:<\/p>\n

\"RX<\/p>\n

However, automation is one of those things that, in moderation, delivers some benefits like growth and convenience. Also, Instagram is none the wiser.<\/p>\n

That said, if you\u2019re not careful about follow limits or you\u2019re using shady automation features like DM-ing strangers with a bot, Instagram might issue a temporary ban.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wrapping up<\/h2>\n

Sure, this type of automation isn\u2019t the same thing as buying another user account or buying followers and likes<\/strong>. However, Instagram still considers it cheating.<\/p>\n

Without a strategic approach to automation, you could do more harm than good. Long story short, keep bots out of your comments and DMs \u2014 at least until they know how to behave.<\/p>\n

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More about Instagram<\/p>\r\n

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5 apps for creating the perfect Instagram story \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is Instagram automation, and should I use it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9161,"featured_media":181201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[2518,2441],"tags":[2354,2011,1051,1035],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-136206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides","category-how-to","tag-app-subdomain-redirectioninstagram","tag-automation","tag-instagram","tag-social-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326057,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136206\/revisions\/326057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136206"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=136206"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=136206"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=136206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}