Setting up the follow gate

The follow gate lives inside the Actions step of the automation builder. Switch it on and you get four settings.

The follow request message

What they receive instead of your real message. Keep it short and say what happens next: they are one tap from what they asked for.

The button label

The text on the button they tap to confirm. Something plain works best.

Maximum asks

How many times one person can be asked by this automation, ever. The default is 2 and the highest allowed is 3.

There is a ceiling because repeated prompting is what makes Instagram restrict messaging, and that affects every message you send afterwards, not just the ones from this automation.

Cooldown

How long to wait before asking the same person again, in hours. This applies when they simply did not respond.

If they tap the button but still do not follow, they get an immediate reply rather than waiting out the cooldown, because they are clearly in the conversation.

A gate needs a DM

You cannot enable the gate without switching on the DM channel first. There would be nothing for it to hold back.

Gate prompts use your message quota

The follow request is a DM, so it counts against your monthly message allowance like any other. If you run out, gates stop opening as well as replies stopping. See Usage and limits.