Instagram @ tags don’t notify users

  • Resolved Chris

    (@totallydubbed)


    5 years ago

    Hi there,

    Hope you are keeping well!
    I’ve found that when I’m @’ing people on Instagram, it doesn’t notify them, as it would when I do it through the Instagram app.
    So for example, via Nelio: If I @ VW on Twitter, they’ll get a notification in their ‘Mentions’, while on Instagram, @ volkswagen, won’t – whereas normally, it notifies a user when you @ them through the app.
    Is there any reason behind this? Can this be fixed, or is there something I might be doing wrong?

    Thanks!

    • This topic was modified 5 years ago by Chris.

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Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Plugin Author Antonio Villegas

    (@avillegasn)

    Hi Chris,

    Thanks for contacting us. Regarding your question, we just pass the text of your message to the social network, and then it is the network who publishes the message. If the network notifies or not mentioned users, that’s beyond our scope.

    Anyway, the behavior should be the same when you type the message manually or when you publish the message through our plugin. It may be the case that Buffer does something in the middle, because you know that we use Buffer as an intermediary when publishing messages to Instagram, because Instagram does not allow us to publish directly (yet).

    But again, once the message is published, if it contains a mention it should behave as if you published manually. It must be something on the Instagram-side. I saw you messages mentioning @ volkswagen and they are perfect.

    Unfortunately, I cannot be more helpful here.

    Thread Starter Chris

    (@totallydubbed)

    Hi Antonio,
    Essentially, it does tag, but doesn’t notify the user – I know you guys used Buffer, so I’m wondering if it’s to do with that too?
    If I went via Buffer only, I wonder, if it would notify the user. I can give it a try and see if it’s an issue with Nelio?

    Plugin Author Antonio Villegas

    (@avillegasn)

    You can do that, but as I mentioned before, the message is published and the user tagged. Why Instagram does not notify the tagged user? Only Instagram knows the answer to this question.

    Thread Starter Chris

    (@totallydubbed)

    Well, I’m not sure – usually, Instagram DOES notify and tag the user. But it would seem via Nelio, it doesn’t, which I found odd.
    Will try soon with Buffer and report back.

    EDIT: Buffer has the same behaviour; doesn’t notify users. Seems to be related with Buffer

    • This reply was modified 5 years ago by Chris.
    Plugin Author David Aguilera

    (@davilera)

    Thanks for the info, @totallydubbed. Keep in mind that some networks (like Instagram) don’t grant third-party tools like ours access to all their features. As a result, things like are possible when using the “native” tool (like notifying tagged users) can’t be achieved using the available APIs. It’s a shame, but it is what it is.

    Thanks for your understanding and we’re sorry we can’t be more helpful here ??

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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