How to subscribe contacts to an automation

Choose contacts and an automation

1. Open a contact's page in Audience, or open the contact sidebar in Inbox, and select Subscribe to automation.
2. For bulk enrollment, select contacts across Audience pages or select conversations in Inbox. In Inbox, use the checkboxes or the header checkbox for all loaded conversations. To enroll a saved segment, apply it from Audience → Segments first. Audience also offers Select all matching contacts for the current filtered list, up to 5,000 contacts; future matches are not enrolled automatically. Then choose Subscribe to automation. Selections are processed in batches of at most 250.
3. Choose a published, active automation. Instagram contacts must have an identity on the account used by that automation.

Set the start timing

• Immediately queues the published automation to start on the next scheduler pass, usually within a minute.
• After a delay waits the selected number of minutes, hours, or days, up to 365 days.
• On their next message is the default for Instagram. Enrollment registers a wait immediately. The optional delay begins after their message arrives.
• Keep existing enrollment prevents duplicate starts, including completed enrollments. Restart from the beginning stops unfinished work from the previous enrollment and starts fresh with the current settings.
• Enrollment skips the automation's normal trigger conditions. It does not fabricate a comment, purchase, order, or messaging permission.

Review the messaging-window warning

Instagram automated DMs require an open 24-hour messaging window. The subscription dialog warns you that messages may wait until the contact replies. A delay can outlast a window that is open now. When this happens, the automation stays at its unsent message step and continues after an eligible reply; it does not repeat the completed delay. Choose an expiration for each enrollment start/window reply wait, or Never. A website click does not open the window. An initial comment private reply has a separate allowance that manual enrollment cannot create.

Subscribe and manage progress

1. Select Subscribe. The result reports subscribed, already enrolled, and skipped contacts, with individual outcomes. Use Retry failed items in the same dialog to safely retry a partial batch.
2. Open Subscribe to automation on an individual contact to see Scheduled, Waiting for message, Running, Completed, Expired, or Failed status.
3. Choose Unsubscribe to cancel the enrollment's unfinished work and pending messages, including linked paths. A message already accepted by a provider cannot be recalled.

• Manually paused contacts must be resumed before enrollment. Disconnected accounts, unavailable contacts, missing social identities, and conflicting handlers are skipped. A name, email, or phone is not required.
• If several workflows wait for the same contact, one reply resumes only the oldest matching wait.
• Purchase/order email variables and product-matching workflows require their original event. Use contact variables or an explicitly selected offer for manually enrolled contacts.
• Normal usage limits, email subscription checks, suppression checks, and provider permissions still apply.