Theo Inbox

Every DM, story reply, story mention and comment on a connected account lands in one list, with the person beside it: their handle, what they last said, whether the 24-hour reply window is still open, and who is handling the thread — you, Theo, or a rule. Open a thread to read the whole conversation and reply; mark it Done when it's handled; Hand to Theo or take it back with I've got this.

It reads like a mail client. Down the side: Inbox (open threads), Needs you (the unread threads waiting on you, not on Theo or a rule), Done, Posts (your posts and Reels with their comments), People (everyone who wrote in), Insights (the numbers, as dashboards), Automations (the rules), Theo (who answers, the brief, his behaviour) and Account (the connected accounts: sync, pause, reconnect, run setup again, disconnect). Then the list, then the thread. On a phone the side becomes a strip and the list and thread take turns.

Theo drives the inbox in two places: the Ask Theo panel inside it (the last item in the side navigation), and the Inbox engine in Theo Chat. Both build and change rules, triage threads, change who answers and the brief, and answer “what's waiting on me?” in plain words — and neither ever sends a reply on its own.

The Inbox connects Instagram professional accounts (Business or Creator) and Facebook Pages (their Messenger conversations and the comments on their posts). A Page's comments get public replies; the one private reply a comment may receive is an Instagram feature for now, and the composer says so on a Page.

The Inbox is included on the Starter, Pro, Supernova and Teams plans. Starter connects two accounts, Pro ten, and Supernova and Teams as many as you like.

New messages arrive by Meta's webhooks where the account is set up for them, and otherwise by a sync that runs every few minutes — so a rule answers within minutes of a message, and only while the message is fresh. Sync now on the Account page pulls immediately.

Want to start over? Account → Disconnect removes the account and everything under it — threads, people, rules — from the Inbox (the Instagram account or Facebook Page itself is untouched). Connecting again runs the whole wizard from the first step.

Connect as many Instagram accounts and Facebook Pages as your plan allows; they all land in the same inbox. The account switcher at the top of the side navigation lists every connected account with its unread count — pick one to see only its threads, posts, people and numbers, or All accounts for everything. Every conversation in the list wears the face of the account it came in on.

To add another, open the switcher and press Add Instagram or Add a Facebook Page (the Account page has the same tiles). A second Instagram account is a second sign-in on Meta's page — if it keeps picking the account you already connected, sign out of Instagram there first. A Facebook login that manages several Pages lists them all, with the ones already connected marked; Use a different Facebook login signs in with another account for its Pages.

Who answers, the brief, Theo's behaviour and the Account page are per account; a rule can run on one account or on all of them.

In any mode, press Ask Theo in a thread for a draft, or type a note first (“say we're closed Monday”) and press Ask Theo to revise. Theo only ever claims what the brief says; when he isn't sure, he says so and suggests you take it.

Comment threads answer the comment itself: Reply publicly posts under it for everyone to see; Private reply sends the commenter a DM, once (Instagram — a Facebook Page's comments get a public reply for now).

Or hand the whole inbox to a Theo Agent worker: hire one from the Inbox Manager starter (or enable the Theo Inbox app in the Theo Agent App library for the workers you have). It reads what came in, answers the DMs and comments your brief covers inside the reply windows, leaves a draft in the composer and hands you anything about money, refunds, complaints, commitments or a closed window, builds the rules (off until you say yes), keeps your leads tagged and reports what moved. It sends as Theo, never as you, under the same windows and daily cap; turning a rule on, deleting one and switching a channel to Auto always ask for your approval.

The thread reads like a messenger: your conversations on the left, the messages in the middle (cut into days, each person's burst grouped under their name), and the person on the right — their details, tags, their other threads with you, and Notes only you can see. A voice note someone sends plays right in the thread.

Press the + in the composer to attach: a photo or video from your device, a file from your Drive, a production from Director (a take or a final cut you already made), or a voice note — the mic records up to a minute. Each attachment goes out as its own message before your text, and only when you tap Send. Instagram takes photos up to 8 MB and audio or video up to 25 MB; the composer says so before anything uploads.

Theo voice reply has Theo say your words — or his own draft, when the box is empty — as a voice note, in the voice you picked for the channel on the Theo page's Voice card (press play there to hear each one). Theo video reply has one of your saved Director characters say the line on camera: pick the face, read the line (about fifteen seconds), and the video renders in a few minutes, lands in the thread's draft and rings your bell. Both wait in the composer until you send them.

On the Voice card, Answer with a voice note lets Theo's automatic replies go out spoken — never, always, or only to someone who sent a voice note. When a person sends a voice note with no text, Theo listens to it so your handoff words, your rules and his reply read what they said.

A comment opens with the post or Reel it's on: the picture (press play on a Reel), the caption, and every comment under it with the replies — yours, Theo's (with his mark) and a rule's, and a failed one with the reason. Pick which of the person's comments you're answering; press Reply on anyone else's comment to open their own thread.

Posts in the side navigation lists your recent posts and Reels, newest first, with how many have new comments. A post with no comments says so — that's how you know nothing is waiting, rather than that nothing loaded. New comments arrive within a few minutes; when you connect, comments are brought in for posts from the last 30 days.

Theo answers comments when Answer comments on your posts and Reels is on (the Theo page, Behaviour — on by default) and he isn't Off. In Auto he posts one short public reply under a new comment, from your brief only and never with anyone's personal details, under the same daily cap and quiet hours as his DMs. In Assist he leaves the reply in the composer for you. Your comment rules run first; he never answers a reply under a comment, and he hands the thread to you for a complaint, a refund, a question your brief doesn't cover, or anyone asking for a person.

The panel. Ask Theo is the last item in the side navigation; it opens as a panel beside your threads (a sheet on a phone), never over the reply box. Press it (or tap the mic) and say what you want: “when someone comments PRICE, DM them the price list and tag them lead”, “mark everything from last week done”, “reply to @ana that we ship Monday”, “switch to Assist”, “what's waiting on me?”. Theo reads your inbox, plans, and applies: every change lands as a chip — a rule, a setting, a thread — that opens the thing it changed, and a change that can be reversed carries Undo. The suggestions under the composer follow the view you're on.

A reply is never sent for you. When Theo writes one, it comes back under Ready to send — as you with the text; your tap is the send, and it counts as your own reply to that person (so it works for the seven days a human may answer, not only Theo's 24 hours). A thread Theo couldn't answer from the brief is listed under Needs you.

From Theo Chat. Pick the Inbox engine in the mode picker, or just ask about your DMs in any mode (“who messaged me today?”, “set up a welcome message”) — Theo routes the ask to your inbox on his own. The answer is the same card: what changed, what needs you, the drafts with a Send button, and a link into the Inbox. A how-to question (“how do I set up auto-replies?”) is answered, never acted on.

A rule is when something happens → then do these steps, in order. Triggers: Comment on a post · DM keyword · Story reply · Story mention · Link (ig.me / m.me) · First message · Default reply · Button tap. Steps: Reply publicly · Send a DM · Send a private reply · Ask a question · Ask them to follow · Add a tag · Wait · Let Theo take over · Notify me · Run another rule. A rule runs once per message, the first matching rule wins, and a rule can keep up to 12 steps; an account can keep up to 50 rules.

The classic: Comment a keyword → DM the link. When a comment on any post (or a specific one) contains “guide”, reply publicly (“Sent it to your DMs 📩” — give it a few variants so it doesn't look robotic) and send the commenter one private reply with the link. Others see it worked; the link stays private.

Ask a question sends a prompt and waits for the next message as the answer. Emails and phone numbers are checked; a wrong one is asked once more, then the thread moves on. A first email or phone number counts as a lead. Ask them to follow sends its prompt only to people who don't follow you and continues once they do.

The Automations page groups your rules by what sets them off, each one read back as a sentence. A rule can be saved incomplete while it is off; turning it on requires it to be able to fire, and the editor tells you exactly what's missing in the same words the server would. The quick starts at the top (and in the wizard's First rules step) seed the four patterns everyone builds first.

Everyone who wrote to or commented on a channel, newest first, searchable by handle or name and narrowable by tag. A person's card shows whether they follow you, the window, the tags rules or you added, and the details a rule captured (email, phone, anything you asked for). Edit any of it in place; open any thread with them from the card.

Opted out on a card means rules and Theo never message that person again. You still can.

Insights in the side navigation is the dashboard over everything that happened across your DMs and comments: messages in (DMs, comments, story replies and mentions), new conversations and new people, the replies you, Theo and your rules sent, Theo's drafts, rules fired, leads captured, handoffs, failed sends and why — and the posts and rules that brought the most in. Pick the last 7, 14, 30 or 90 days or any two dates (up to a year); every number shows its change against the same stretch before it, and the charts fill in day by day.

Four dashboards come built in — Overview, Automations, Theo and People — and you can keep up to 12 of your own. Press Build with Theo and say what you want to see (“which Reels bring the most DMs, and how many turn into leads”); Theo lays out the tiles from the same numbers, you look it over, then save it as a tab or replace one of yours. Rename, edit or delete a saved dashboard from its tab's menu.

Counting starts the moment an account is connected — every message is counted as it lands, never sampled. What was already in the Inbox when Insights arrived is counted the first time you open the page (up to 90 days back; rules fired, leads and handoffs before that day read as zero), and Count my history does it again on request. Narrow any dashboard to one account with the switcher, or stay on All accounts to compare them.

Theo — per account: who answers (Off / Assist / Auto); the brief (What Theo knows, with Let Theo read my profile to refresh it); and his behaviour — whether he answers comments on your posts and Reels, conversation starters shown to first-time senders, a default reply when nothing else answers a DM, the disclosure line he adds to his first reply, the words that hand a thread to a human, the daily cap on his replies, quiet hours. Each card saves on its own, so editing one never resets another. These are the same cards the wizard showed you.

Account — each connected account with its status. Sync now pulls immediately; Pause stops the account receiving and sending without disconnecting it; Reconnect signs in again; Run setup again re-opens the wizard; Disconnect (you type the account's name to confirm) removes the account and everything under it from the Inbox — the Instagram account itself is untouched — and the next connect starts from square one.

When Meta's permission expires or is revoked (a password change, removing the app in Instagram's or Facebook's settings), the channel shows Needs reconnecting, you get one notification, and nothing is sent or received until you press Reconnect and sign in again. Your conversations, people and rules are kept.

If you remove OpenCharts from your Instagram or Facebook settings, Meta tells us and the channel stops at once (it shows Needs reconnecting; your history is kept so reconnecting restores it). If you ask Meta to delete your data from OpenCharts, every connected channel of that account is removed with its conversations, people and messages, and Meta shows you a confirmation code beginning with inbox-. Keep it: quote it to support if you ever need to check the request was carried out.

You can do the same yourself any time: Disconnect on the Inbox's Account page removes a channel and everything under it, and deleting your OpenCharts account removes every channel you own.