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Meta lets a Facebook Page or an Instagram account connect more than one messaging app, for example Social media studio and a chatbot tool. Conversation Routing decides which app owns each conversation. Only the owner app can answer.

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What you see in Social media studio

When another app owns some of your conversations, Meta still sends them to us on its “standby” channel. Social media studio then:
  • shows Another app answers this inbox on the account in Accounts;
  • stores those conversations in the inbox read-only: you can read them, but the reply box is replaced by a notice;
  • does not run workflows, keyword replies or the AI agent on them.
When the other app passes a conversation back to Social media studio, it becomes answerable again at once. A new message, a button tap or an ad click from the person on the normal channel does the same. The account notice goes away about a day after Meta stops sending standby messages.
The standby channel needs the app’s Page webhook to include the standby and messaging_handovers fields. If your conversations do not show at all, reconnect the account or turn the inbox off and on again in Accounts.

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Make Social media studio the default app

You change routing in Meta, not in Social media studio.
1

Open Meta Business Suite

Sign in to business.facebook.com with a person who has full control of the Page.
2

Open the routing settings

Go to Settings, then Advanced messaging, and find the conversation routing (default app) setting for the Page. Meta sometimes renames these menus; search the settings for “conversation routing” if you do not find them.
3

Pick the default app

Set Social media studio as the default app for Messenger and, if you use it, for Instagram. You can keep the other app connected for the conversations you route to it.
4

Check the result

Send a test message to the Page or the Instagram account. It shows in the inbox with a reply box, and your workflows and the AI agent answer it again.
If you moved from another tool (for example a chatbot builder), it often stays the default app after you connect Social media studio. That is the most common reason for “Another app answers this inbox”.

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Limits

  • Routing is set only in Meta Business Suite. Social media studio cannot change it for you.
  • Messages that arrived while another app owned the conversation stay in the inbox as they are.
  • Buttons and links of the other app’s flows (postbacks, read receipts) are not stored.