Someone comments on your post and your automation didn't catch it, or the post has no automation at all. Until now that person was out of reach unless they messaged you first. Now every comment in the Comments dashboard can get one private DM from you, by hand.
Send a Private Reply
Click Comments in the left menu of Ellipsend (between Posts and Automations). This opens the Comments dashboard, where every comment on your posts shows up as a card.
Find the comment. The bottom of each card tells you where it stands: Private DM available means you can reply.
Click Reply privately.
Write your message, or pick a saved response. You can send text, an image, a link button, or a voice note.
Send it. The card changes to Private reply already sent with a View in Inbox button that opens the conversation.
The DM lands in your inbox like any other conversation, so you can keep talking from there, assign it, or move the contact through your pipeline.
One DM Per Comment, Within 7 Days
Meta allows one private reply per comment, and only within 7 days of the comment. The card shows the deadline next to Private reply window ends. Once the window closes, the card reads Window ended and the button is gone. If you need another way in after that, reply publicly to the comment and ask them to DM you.
Your first private reply opens the conversation. After the person replies, the normal 7-day messaging window applies, the same as any DM.
Saved Responses in a Private Reply
Pick any saved response from the composer. Only its message is inserted. Contact actions attached to the saved response (labels, stages, assignments) don't run on a private comment reply, so do those from the inbox once the conversation is open.
When the Button Isn't There
Private reply already sent. This comment got its one DM. Use View in Inbox to continue the conversation.
Window ended. The comment is older than 7 days.
Deleted comments can't get a private reply.
You do not have permission to send private replies. Ask your account owner to update your role.
Private Reply or Automation?
An automation still handles volume: it DMs everyone who comments your keyword, around the clock. Use Reply privately for the one-offs, the people who commented something your keyword didn't match, or a post you never attached an automation to. If a whole post was missed, Replay Comments sends the automation to everyone at once.