How to Handle Your Story Replies with Vardast

Handling story replies is one of the most significant challenges for a growing page. To help you manage high engagement without losing the personal touch, Vardast offers two distinct methods: Smart Automation for structured journeys and AI-Generated Replies for natural, context-aware conversations.

1. Smart Automation: Structured Story Flows

Use Smart Automation when you want a specific, predictable result—such as sending a discount code, a product catalog, or a registration link.

Step-by-Step Configuration

1. Access the Dashboard: Navigate to the Automation tab and select the Story Reply sub-tab. Ensure your correct Instagram channel is selected.

1. Initialize: Click the + New Automation button to begin building your workflow.

1. Define the Scope: Choose which stories will trigger this specific flow:

• Specific Stories: Select one or a series of active stories from your current live posts.

Note: Stories become visible in the Vardast platform as soon as they receive their first reply.

• All Stories: Apply the automation globally to every story you post.

1. Set the Trigger:

• All Replies: Activates the flow for any text or emoji response.
• Specific Words: Enter exact keywords (e.g., "Price" or "Link"). Click the + icon to add multiple keyword variations.

1. Choose how Vardast handles the interaction:

• Answer: Vardast automatically delivers your predefined message or flow to the user.
• Do not answer: Use this to exclude specific keywords or stories from receiving an automated reply, leaving the conversation open for a manual response.

1. Configure Follower Conditions: This feature allows you to prioritize your community. When Only reply to followers is enabled, Vardast checks the user's status before sending your automation:

• Followers: Receive the automated reply immediately.
• Non-Followers: Receive an automated invitation to follow your page first. Your reply will be sent automatically as soon as they hit the Follow button.

1. Build the Sequence

Start your message by selecting your first content block. Once your first block is set, use the + icon to stack additional blocks and extend the conversation.

• Text: Send a direct greeting or specific information.
• Media: Attach images, voice notes, or videos to grab attention.
• Buttons: Create up to three interactive options to guide user interest.
• Product Vitrine: Showcase catalog items with images and prices.

Tip: Add a Delay Between any two blocks, you can insert a Delay (up to 10 minutes). This makes the interaction feel more natural and gives the user time to read the previous message before the next one arrives.

1. Once your setup is complete, click save to activate the automation.



1. On/Off Toggle: Use the switch in the upper corner to instantly pause your automation. When you're ready to start again, simply toggle it back on.

Story Automation Priority

When users interact with your stories, Vardast handles multiple active triggers using this order:

• Specific Story Triggers: Automations linked to a specific story will always override a general "all stories" automation.
• Keyword Matching: Each unique keyword will successfully activate its designated flow.
• Global Triggers (No Keywords): If multiple triggers are active for all stories without keywords, the oldest trigger (the one created first) will be the one to respond.

2. Managing and Monitoring Your Automations

Once your flows are live, use the dashboard tools to keep everything organized.

Using Filters

If you have multiple automations running, use the Filter bar to sort them by:

• Automation Status: View which flows are currently active, paused, or in draft mode.
• In Response To: Filter by specific trigger keywords or view "All" general replies.
• Related To: Distinguish between flows applied to All Stories versus those linked to Specific Stories.
• Answering Status: Filter based on whether the flow is set to Active Response (Vardast answers) or Silent Mode (Vardast does not answer).
• Only Reply To Follower: Quickly identify which flows are set to Only Reply to Followers.

Control Icons

At the bottom of each automation card, you will find these essential tools:

• Eye Icon (Preview): View exactly how the message looks in a Direct Message.
• Pencil Icon (Edit): Update your triggers or change your content blocks.
• Trash Icon (Delete): Remove the automation entirely.

• On/Off Toggle: Instantly pause or resume a specific flow.

3. AI-Generated Replies: Natural Conversations

Use this option when you want Vardast to analyze the context of your story and provide a unique, intelligent response to every user message.

How the AI Works

• Visual Analysis: Vardast reviews your story content. For photos, it analyzes objects and text; for videos, it processes the audio and visual cues.
• Contextual Response: It combines your story’s context with the user’s specific message to generate a relevant reply.
• Manual Refinement: You have full control over how your story content is processed. By clicking on any synced story, you can review Vardast's analysis of your post. If the details are not exactly as you intended, you can edit the analysis to match your specific needs.

Setting Up AI Responses

1. Toggle ON: Switch the AI-generated reply to stories toggle to the ON position.
2. Story Sync: Note that stories only appear in the Vardast platform once they receive their first reply.
3. Telegram Notifications: To manage replies on the go, link a Telegram Topic.

• Create a Telegram group with topics (refer to our [Setup Guide]).
• In Vardast Settings, paste the Topic Link.

💡 Tip: You will receive a notification for every reply, including a direct link to edit the AI's analysis if needed.