The “Gram” is finally improving its inbox management options for businesses by rolling out new features to help them make better use of the messaging platform.

Currently, business pages on Instagram do not receive an alert when a user they don’t follow sends them a message (just like DMs between people). Instead, the message will appear in the “Message Requests” folder, where they need to be approved before appearing to community managers.

Instagram is set to change this now with new customer messages appearing in the Direct inbox instead of the Requests folder. Businesses will also have the option to star and filter messages that they want to follow up on later.

Also, Instagram will be testing quick replies in the next few weeks as an additional feature to allow businesses to easily respond to commonly asked questions.

Source: Instagram blog

This is certainly something for businesses to capitalize on given that Instagram has highlighted that more than 150 million users already conduct conversations with businesses through Direct each month, with a third of those messages beginning with an Instagram Story.

Read more here.