Direct message | DM script

[alexrmacleod]

Has anyone used this instagram-private-api to build a list of usernames from hashtags or location ids and then scheduled/sent direct messages to those usernames?

Would appreciate it if you could share your script or even just a code snippet. Would save me tons of time!

[sunderee]

I'm working on something similar, but I'm having a bit of an issue sending DMs. My script is basically this:

const user = this.configService.get<string>(ENV_USERNAME);
const pass = this.configService.get<string>(ENV_PASSWORD);

await this.instagramClient.account.login(user, pass);

const userID = await this.instagramClient.user.getIdByUsername('some_username');
const thread = this.instagramClient.entity.directThread(userID.toString());
await thread.broadcastText(messageBody);

But the error I'm getting back is

IgResponseError: POST /api/v1/direct_v2/threads/broadcast/text/ - 400 Bad Request; 
    at Request.handleResponseError (XXX/node_modules/instagram-private-api/dist/core/request.js:125:16)
    at Request.send (XXX/node_modules/instagram-private-api/dist/core/request.js:53:28)
    at async DirectThreadRepository.broadcast (XXX/node_modules/instagram-private-api/dist/repositories/direct-thread.repository.js:176:26)
    at async DirectThreadEntity.broadcast (XXX/node_modules/instagram-private-api/dist/entities/direct-thread.entity.js:192:26)
    at async DirectThreadEntity.broadcastText (XXX/node_modules/instagram-private-api/dist/entities/direct-thread.entity.js:26:16)

[dayvista]

@alexrmacleod @sunderee

I'm late to the discussion, but here's my code that's working for sending DMs:

import { IgApiClient } from 'instagram-private-api'
import { config } from 'dotenv'

const sendMessageToIGUser = async ({ message, recipient }) => {
    // Instantiate the IG client
    const ig = new IgApiClient()

    // Login using your IG username/password
    config()
    const username = process.env.IG_USERNAME
    const password = process.env.IG_PASSWORD

    ig.state.generateDevice(username)
    await ig.account.login(username, password).catch((err) => console.log({ loginErr: err }))

    // Get the recipient user's ID
    const userID = await ig.user
        .getIdByUsername(recipient)
        .catch((err) => console.log({ getIdByUsernameErr: err }))

    // Create a DM thread and send the message
    const thread = ig.entity.directThread([userID.toString()])
    const sendRes = await thread
        .broadcastText(message)
        .catch((err) => console.log({ broadcastTextErr: err }))

    // Handle success/failure
    if (Boolean(sendRes) && typeof sendRes === 'object') {
        console.log(`Message successfully sent to ${recipient}.`)
    } else {
        console.log(`Failed to send message to ${recipient}.`)
    }
}