A customer finds your bakery's Facebook Page at 9 PM and writes: "Do you take orders for Saturday?" You are home, the phone is in the kitchen, and you answer the next morning. Maybe they still order. Maybe they asked the shop down the street too.
Facebook gives every Page a few ways to answer that message without you. They sit in different menus, they fire at different moments, and two of them can block each other. This post goes through each one, in the order a customer meets them, with texts you can copy. Then it explains the 24 hour rule, which decides what any tool, Meta's or ours, may send.
All Meta facts below come from Meta's own help pages, checked on September 28, 2026. Menus move between app versions, so if a button name differs, look for the nearest match.
Who writes to a Facebook Page
Facebook is still where a lot of your customers are. Pew Research Center's 2025 survey of 5,022 US adults found that 71% say they ever use Facebook, second only to YouTube. The share has sat between 68% and 71% since 2016.
| Label | Value |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 68% |
| 2018 | 68% |
| 2019 | 69% |
| 2021 | 69% |
| 2023 | 68% |
| 2024 | 70% |
| 2025 | 71% |
Pew notes that it changed how it runs the survey in 2023 (from phone to web and mail, with phone added back in 2024), so small moves across that line are not a trend. The age split is the useful part for a small business. Facebook reaches more people aged 30 to 64 than people under 30, the reverse of Instagram:
Parents booking a birthday cake, a daughter asking about a class for her mother, a regular checking holiday hours. Those people write to Pages, and they write at night.
The options at a glance
| What the customer sees | Meta's name | When it fires | Where to set it |
|---|---|---|---|
| A greeting and a button before the first message | Greeting and Get Started | Before they write | A connected tool, such as Postfjord |
| Up to four tap-to-ask questions | Frequently asked questions (conversation starters) | When they open a new chat | Business Suite, or Postfjord |
| A menu in the chat | Persistent menu | Any time in the chat | A connected tool, such as Postfjord |
| A reply to their first message | Instant reply (auto reply) | First message | Business Suite |
| A reply when you are closed | Away message | During your away hours | Business Suite |
| A reply to a word like "price" | Custom keywords | Message contains the word | Business Suite desktop, or Postfjord |
| A reply when nothing else matched | Default reply | Any unmatched message | Postfjord |
Option 1: Instant reply
Meta's inbox automations page describes the instant reply as a greeting "when someone messages you for the first time". It confirms you got the message and tells people when to expect you.
From Meta's desktop steps:
- Open Inbox in Meta Business Suite. Check that the right business portfolio is selected at the top left.
- Click Automations, then Create automation at the top right.
- Pick Auto reply (the template for the instant reply) and follow the steps on screen.
- Turn it on with the toggle under Status. It can take a few minutes to show up.
An instant reply for a bakery:
Hi, thanks for writing to Maple Street Bakery! We answer every message during shop hours, 7 AM to 3 PM, Tuesday to Sunday. Saturday cake orders close Thursday at noon. Order form: maplestreet.postfjord.page
Keep it under three lines. Give the one thing most people ask, and a link.
Option 2: Away message
Meta's away message page says an away message goes to people who write while your Page's messaging status is set to away. You can schedule that status to match your business hours, or switch it by hand.
- Log into Facebook, click your profile photo at the top right, then See all profiles and pick your Page.
- Click Messenger, then Automations at the top right.
- Find Away message under Suggested for you and click Try it, or click Edit next to it under Your automations if you made one before.
- Pick the channel. Under When this happens, select the hours you are away.
- Write the message under Message and click Save changes.
Meta also notes that away messages do not count toward your Page's response rate or response time. The badge that says "responds within an hour" is measured on your own replies.
An away message for a yoga studio:
We're closed for the night and back at 6 AM. Tomorrow's classes and booking: sunrise-yoga.postfjord.page. We'll answer your message in the morning.
Option 3: Frequently asked questions
The FAQ puts up to four questions in front of someone who opens a chat with your Page for the first time. They tap one, and your answer goes out. In Business Suite it is the Frequently asked questions template under Automations. Meta's developer docs call these ice breakers, and Postfjord calls them Conversation starters.
Good starters are the questions you already answer every week:
- "What are your hours?"
- "How do I order a cake?"
- "Do you have gluten-free options?"
- "Where do I park?"
Meta shows them only to people who have never chatted with your Page. You will not see them on your own account if you have written to the Page before, so test from a friend's account.
Option 4: Get Started, greeting and the chat menu
These three live on the Page's Messenger profile, and a tool that connects to the Page, such as Postfjord, can set them for you.
- Greeting: a short text above the Get Started button, 160 characters at most.
- Get Started: the button a new contact presses to begin. In Postfjord, new Messenger contacts must press Get Started before any automation can run, m.me links included.
- Chat menu: the menu inside the chat, with up to ten items on Messenger. Each item opens a link or starts an automation, and each title is 30 characters or fewer.
A chat menu for a café might hold Menu and prices, Order for pickup, Opening hours and Talk to a person.
Option 5: Keyword replies
Business Suite has Custom keywords on the desktop version. Its help page lists three rules worth knowing before you rely on it:
- Exact match. Keywords are case-sensitive, and the reply only goes out when the keyword matches exactly. One automation takes up to 5 keywords, and each keyword can be used in only one automation.
- A 15 minute wait. Business Suite sends a keyword reply after 15 minutes, unless you answer first.
- Templates win. When an away message and a keyword automation both match, Meta sends the away message and not the keyword reply.
That last rule is the one that bites at night. With the away message on, someone who writes "how much is a sheet cake?" gets "we're closed" instead of your prices.
One more note from Meta: if you turn on Meta Business Agent, your existing automations, away messages and instant replies included, are paused.
Option 6: A default reply and keyword replies in Postfjord
Postfjord's DM automation runs on Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts, and every thread lands in the same inbox. Two templates cover people who write to you.
Keyword reply
- Open Automation, press New automation and pick Keyword reply.
- Tick your Facebook Page, and your Instagram account too if you want the same answer there.
- Type the keywords, comma separated:
price, prices, cost, how much. - Write the answer, and add a button or a link.
- Save and turn it on.
Matching ignores case and punctuation, so "PRICE?" and "what's the price" both match "price".
Default reply
The default reply answers when nothing else matched. The steps are on the Channels help page:
- Open Channels and press the gear on your Facebook Page.
- Press Create default reply. Postfjord makes one with a starting text.
- Edit the text, and add a button or a link.
- Set Only between certain hours, for example 21:00 to 07:00 (9 PM to 7 AM) in your workspace time zone.
From the Automation help page: the default reply goes out at most once per 24 hours per person, so a customer who sends three messages at night gets it once. A keyword reply still wins when it matches. So at 9 PM, "price" gets your prices, and "can I bring my dog?" gets the default reply.
The same panel holds the conversation starters, the chat menu, Get Started and the greeting. Save to Meta writes them to your Page in one go. Postfjord's Messenger features need Meta's messaging permission, which Meta grants through its app review, and the panel tells you if that is still pending for your Page.
The default reply counts as one automation on your plan. The Free plan runs one automation, and every paid plan has unlimited automations. See pricing.
The 24 hour rule, in plain words
Meta's Messenger Platform policy gives a business 24 hours to answer after a person acts. The clock starts when they send a message, tap a button in your chat, or click an ad that opens Messenger. Inside those 24 hours you, and your automations, can send anything, offers included.
After 24 hours, the door closes until they write again. Meta allows a few exceptions through message tags, including a Human Agent tag that lets a person on your team answer by hand for up to 7 days.
What this means for you:
- Answer within a day. An auto reply buys time. It does not replace your answer.
- No marketing blasts to old chats. A customer who wrote in March cannot get your October sale in Messenger. Put them on an email list instead.
- Every reply resets the clock. When they answer your auto reply, a new 24 hours starts.
Postfjord's inbox shows the clock on every thread: 14 h left to reply while it is open, Reply window closed when it is not. Automations never send outside the window.
Which setup to use
For a Page that gets a few messages a week, set up the FAQ with four questions and an away message in Business Suite. It is free, and you can do it tonight.
If your questions come at night and you want the right answer to go out, use keyword replies with a default reply behind them. Then the away message cannot block your prices.
Either way, test it. Ask a friend who has never written to your Page to send "hi", then "price", after your closing time. Read what comes back.
FAQ
How do I set up an auto reply on Facebook Messenger?
Open Inbox in Meta Business Suite, click Automations, then Create automation, and pick Auto reply or Away message. Follow the steps and turn it on with the toggle. For keyword replies and a reply only at night, a connected tool like Postfjord works under Channels and Automation.
Can I set an auto reply on my personal Messenger?
Meta lists inbox automations for Facebook Pages, Instagram business accounts and WhatsApp Business accounts connected to Business Suite. A personal profile is not on that list.
Why is my Facebook auto reply not working?
Check three things. Is the automation's status toggle on? Is an away message on at the same time as a keyword automation? The away message wins. Are you testing from an account that already chatted with the Page? The FAQ only shows to people who never wrote before.
Does an away message affect my response time badge?
No. Meta says away messages are not included in your Page's response rate or response time.
Can I message someone after 24 hours on Messenger?
Only in the cases Meta allows with message tags, such as the Human Agent tag for a manual reply within 7 days. Otherwise you wait until the person writes again. Postfjord's inbox locks the reply box when the window closes and opens it the moment they write.