You can answer replies to your Threads posts automatically with a tool that connects to the Threads API. The reply goes out publicly under the person’s comment, the same as if you had typed it. Threads has no API for direct messages, so the “comment a keyword, get a DM” setup that works on Instagram is not possible on Threads. Everything happens in the comments.
What a tool can do on Threads
Threads has its own API, separate from the Instagram and Facebook ones, and its own login. Meta describes it in the Threads API announcement: publishing, reading your own content, and managing replies. Once you connect your Threads profile to a tool, it can:
- read the replies people leave on your posts;
- reply to them publicly from your profile;
- hide a reply, for example spam.
It cannot read or send Threads DMs, because the API does not offer them.
How VivaDialog handles Threads replies
VivaDialog checks each connected Threads profile for new replies every 5 minutes. New replies land in the same inbox as your Facebook and Instagram comments, and your automation rules run on them. Because of the 5-minute check, an automatic reply on Threads can take up to 5 minutes to appear. On Facebook and Instagram, Meta sends new comments to VivaDialog as they happen, so there is no such wait.
Set up an automatic reply
Before you start, connect Threads: in Settings, under Connected accounts, click Connect Threads and log in. Threads uses its own login, so connecting Instagram does not connect Threads.
- Open Automation and click New rule.
- Pick a template that fits, for example Thank people for kind comments or Comment INFO, get the link. You can also start from scratch.
- Under When should this run?, choose New comment.
- Enter the words to look for, separated by commas, or choose Every message.
- Choose how to reply: the same text every time, or Answer with AI. For AI, write the facts it may use, such as prices or how to order. It answers only from those facts and says your team will follow up when it does not know.
- To keep the rule on Threads only, open Advanced settings and tick Threads under Only on. Leave it empty to run the rule on every platform.
- Use Test it first with a sample comment, then save.
How to auto-reply to Instagram comments walks through the same editor in more detail.
Limits to know
- A rule step that sends a private DM is skipped on Threads. The public reply in the same rule still goes out.
- When you first connect a Threads profile, the replies already on your posts come into the inbox, but no rule runs on them. Rules start with replies that arrive after that, and nothing older than 24 hours gets an automatic reply.
- VivaDialog posts at most one reply per Threads profile every 30 seconds, to stay clear of Threads’ rate limits. An automatic reply that would come sooner is not sent, and the rule’s History shows why.
- Each comment gets at most one automatic reply, even when several rules match. Replies written by your own profile never trigger a rule.
Hiding spam replies
A rule can hide a reply instead of answering it. Set the words to look for, choose Don’t reply, and under Advanced settings tick Hide comment. To keep a reply rule away from complaints, add words such as “refund” under Skip messages that contain, so a person on your team answers those.
When a public reply is not enough
Some questions need a private conversation, for example an order number or an address. Since Threads has no DMs through the API, reply publicly with where to reach you, such as your Instagram DMs or a link to your order page. On Instagram the same situation has a private option: a rule can send a DM to the person who commented.
For everything that works on Threads today, see what works on Threads.