Collect phone numbers from Instagram comments

Want a phone list you can text, built from the people who already comment on your posts? This template asks each one for their number in your DMs, and everyone still gets the reward you promised.

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Collect phone numbers from Instagram comments

About

Someone comments STARTERPACK, taps one button and sends their phone number in your DMs. It lands on their contact, ready to export. Copy the template.

This template collects phone numbers from STARTERPACK comments on your next post. The commenter first gets a one-button DM; one tap and they are asked for their phone number, which Inrō saves on the Phone field of their contact. The starter pack link comes next, and it arrives whether they share a number or not.

Inrō builder: the whole Grow your phone list from comments flow, from the STARTERPACK trigger to the starter pack link

What the template does, step by step

1. Someone comments STARTERPACK

Both spellings start the flow, STARTERPACK and STARTER PACK. Inrō matches the keyword as a whole word in any case, and a plural counts too, so "Starter pack" and "starter packs please" work. Only top-level comments count, not replies to other comments, and each person gets the flow once.

On the post itself, Inrō answers each STARTERPACK comment with one line chosen at random from "Sent, check your DMs", "Just sent it to your DMs" and "It's in your DMs now 🙂", and it lets the DM go out before posting it. The DM goes through Inrō's comment to DM feature, on the next post you publish (the date check is the first item in the setup list below).

2. A "Yes, send it" tap before any question

"Want the starter pack? Tap below and it's yours." is the opener, and "Yes, send it" is its only button.

The tap comes first on purpose. A comment gives you one private message to the person, and you can only write again after they answer it (Meta for Developers, checked 22 October 2026). The tap is their answer and their opt-in, and the phone question comes in behind it.

Under 120 characters, a first message converted at 39%; above that, at 22%. This opener is 48 characters, and the split itself was measured over the 798,041 conversations in Inrō's DM Benchmark, not on this flow.

A person who leaves the button alone for 6 hours exits the flow without being asked anything.

3. The phone question, saved to the Phone field

After the tap, an "Ask for information" step sends: "What's your phone number? Your starter pack comes right after." That step type exists to ask for one detail and file the answer on the contact. Here it fills the Phone field.

Inrō picks the number out of the reply, so an answer like "sure, it's +44 7700 900123" counts. When AI detection reads the reply, it uses AI credits only if it finds a number.

4. No number? One re-ask, with the country code or SKIP

A reply with no number in it gets a second message: "That doesn't look like a phone number. Add the country code, or reply SKIP to get it without one."

The step's "Maximum retries" setting is 2, which in practice means one re-ask. SKIP is not a command. Any second reply without a number moves the flow on, and the person still gets the starter pack. Someone who answers SKIP to the first question sees the re-ask first.

Ask for information step in Inrō: phone number question, re-ask with country code or SKIP, saved to Phone, 2 hour wait

5. The starter pack, with or without a number

The reward travels as a link card: "Starter pack" on top, "Open it" on the button. The flow holds two of these cards, one per path:

After a number, or after a second reply without one: the card goes out straight away. Leave it untapped for 2 hours and Inrō follows up once with "Have you checked the link yet?"
After silence: if no number arrives within 2 hours of the question, the same card goes out anyway. The re-ask does not restart that clock, and this card has no nudge.

Whichever card they tap, the person ends up in "Starter pack: clicked". The 2 hours before the nudge is a wait, not an expiry date: the link keeps working after it.

Starter pack link card with Open it button, the 2 hour nudge, and the fallback link sent when no number arrives

What to change before you turn it on

STARTERPACK and STARTER PACK are both set as keywords, for top-level comments on your next post, and nobody gets the flow twice.

Comment trigger in Inrō: next post only, comments with the keywords STARTERPACK or STARTER PACK

Run through this list before the STARTERPACK post is live:

The trigger date. Copying the template stamped a date on "Next post only" (comment trigger, "Select the posts"). Press Reset date, then Save scenario, just before you publish your STARTERPACK post.
The keyword. Keep both spellings, or swap them for a keyword nobody else uses in your other automations. Name the word in your caption.
The reward name. Rename the reward in four places: the opener and the phone question ("the starter pack"), and the title of both link cards ("Starter pack").
Both link cards. The card sent after a number and the card sent after silence each point to an example address. Paste your reward link into both.
The Phone field. Leave "Contact property to collect" on Phone. That setting puts the number on the contact, in the phone number filter and in the "Phone number" column of the contacts export.
Manual replies. "Interrupt when you reply manually" is off in this template, so the flow carries on if you message someone yourself. Turn it on in the scenario settings if your team picks up these conversations by hand in DMs.

The folder name is yours to change, and so are the three waits: 6 hours on the button, 2 hours on the phone question, 2 hours before the nudge.

Best tips for your scenario

Ask for their OK to text in the question itself. Say what you will text about and how often, for example "What's your phone number? We text one offer a week, and your starter pack comes right after." People who send a number then know what they signed up for.
Ask for the country code up front. Add "with your country code" to the first question. Fewer people then need the re-ask, which already asks for it.
Keep the "Yes, send it" button, and name the reward next to it. Without the tap, the phone question never goes out. Put the name of your reward in the opener, so people tap for something they can picture.
Check that STARTERPACK is free. If another of your automations already reacts to STARTERPACK or STARTER PACK, rename the keyword in one of the two, so each comment starts the flow you expect.
Follow up in DMs as well. Filter your contacts by whether they have a phone number and send that group a DM campaign, for example when you open a sale or a new booking slot.

FAQ

What if someone does not want to share their number?

They still get the starter pack. A reply of SKIP, or any second reply without a number, moves the flow on, and so does silence: 2 hours after the question, the link goes out anyway. No number is saved for them.

Where do the phone numbers go?

Each number lands on the person's Phone field in Inrō's inbox and CRM. Filter your contacts by phone number, then export them as a spreadsheet: the export has a "Phone number" column you can load into the tool you text from. On the Pro plan, the Make integration can also send contacts to other tools.

How do I grow an SMS list from Instagram?

Put a keyword in your post, run this template on it, then export the contacts who shared a number to the tool you send texts from. Say in the question what you will text them, so people know what they agree to.