Story reply
Why it matters for creators
A story reply is one of the strongest signals a follower can send: stories last 24 hours, so whoever replied was paying attention today. It's also private (replies land in your DMs, not in a public thread), which makes them a natural start for a real conversation.
For automation, story replies matter for a second reason: a reply opens the 24-hour messaging window, so a tool can answer on your behalf the moment it arrives. A story that says "reply RECIPE and I'll send it" turns a passive view into a conversation while the interest is still warm.
Worth being blunt about the thing most creators miss: a story reply is a DM. It lands in the same inbox as any other message and behaves like one, which is why the same rules and the same automation reach it. Where story replies sit among everything else Instagram counts as a direct message is in what Instagram DMs are.