A way to get and send Direct Messages in Instagram in NodeJS

Question

Is it possible to get and send Instagram Direct Messages programmatically in NodeJS? I couldn't find any recent answers about the subject, so decided to ask here.

Right now I know that there are:

Instagram API
FB Instagram API (Graph API)
instagram-private-api package

First and second don't have api for direct messages as I understand. Third one is a bit doubtful. Hard to say how exactly it works. Is Instagram okay with developers using this lib?

The answer is pretty obvious, isn't it? The official APIs don't allow messaging. The license on that sketchy library you linked to has disclaimers that make it pretty clear. https://github.com/dilame/instagram-private-api#end-user-license-agreement-eula You could also just read the terms of service for the official APIs and see that no, you're not allowed to actually try to send direct messages programmatically. — Brad, Aug 03 '19 at 17:26

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 03 '19 at 17:26

If you use the instagram-private-api you can send direct messages via:

const userId = await ig.user.getIdByUsername('username');
const thread = ig.entity.directThread([userId.toString()]);
await thread.broadcastText('Message from node');

_{(Source: https://github.com/dilame/instagram-private-api/issues/792)}

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 19 '21 at 07:10

As of August 16, 2021 you can send IG messages through the official API.

Here is a quote from the official "FACEBOOK for developers" website: "All Instagram business accounts can connect to Messenger API for Instagram as of August 16, 2021." (Instagram Messaging)

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 07 '23 at 17:45

Full Code With NodeJS and instagram-private-api:

require("dotenv").config();
const { IgApiClient } = require("instagram-private-api");

const postToInsta = async (orderDetails) => {
  try {
    //Contect Instagram API Client
    const ig = new IgApiClient();
    ig.state.generateDevice(process.env.IG_USERNAME);
    await ig.account.login(process.env.IG_USERNAME, process.env.IG_PASSWORD);

    //Set user ID
    const userId = await ig.user.getIdByUsername("said user");
    const thread = ig.entity.directThread([userId.toString()]);

    //Send Mesage
    await thread.broadcastText("Message from node");
    return true;
  } catch (err) {
    return err;
  }
};

const instaPost = postToInsta().then(function (instaPost) {
  if (instaPost == true) {
    console.log(`Message Sent Succesfully`);
  }
});

Just set your environment variables in your .env file using

IG_USERNAME = "<username>"
IG_PASSWORD = "<password>"

To Download

npm i instagram-private-api

Docs:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/instagram-private-api

A way to get and send Direct Messages in Instagram in NodeJS

3 Answers3