Links and buttons in your DM

The link is the whole point of most automations, so it is worth knowing exactly how it travels. This page covers what a valid link looks like, how many buttons a DM can carry, what changes by plan, and what a fan sees on the other end. For the first-time walk-through, start with Build your first automation.

How your link reaches the fan

Your link is sent as a tappable button under the message by default, labelled Open link unless you give it your own text. If you would rather have the link sit inside the sentence, write {{link}} in the message and it is replaced by your link there instead. When the message already contains the link, Dartzo does not add a second button for it.

If a button cannot ride along (for example, when the message already carries three buttons), the link is added to the end of the message text. A link is never silently dropped.

In the Simple studio, links show as small chips under the message box. Press + Add link, fill in a Title (the button text) and the Link, and save. If you type example.com without the https://, the Simple popup adds it for you. In Advanced, the same thing is the Button text and Button link pair, or the Add buttons add-on when you want more than one.

What counts as a valid link

• It must start with https://. A plain http:// address is not accepted for a button.
• It must be one link per field. Spaces are not allowed, so two links pasted into one box are refused. This was tightened on 26 October 2026 after a creator pasted three links into one field and the button opened a broken address.
• Empty is fine. A link is optional (a thank-you reply does not need one). The only time an empty link blocks you is when your message uses {{link}}, because the DM would go out with a blank line.

If a field breaks the rules, the studio tells you in plain words and will not save until it is fixed. The messages you may see are: “One link per field — it looks like several links were pasted in. Keep one here and add the others as separate links.”, “A link can’t contain spaces.”, and “Your link needs to start with https://”. The same check runs on the server, so an old browser tab or the phone app cannot sneak a bad link past it. A draft you are still editing may stay mid-way; the check bites when you go live.

How many buttons, and how long

The 640 figure surprises people. A message that fits the box while you type can still be too long once {{link}} and a long first name are expanded, so the counter measures the worst case. That way a button is never dropped at send time because the text was a few characters too long.

Link buttons and quick-reply buttons

In Advanced, turn on Add buttons. Each button is one of two kinds:

• Link opens a web address. It needs a label and an https link.
• Quick reply sends a follow-up message when tapped. It needs that follow-up written (otherwise the studio says “This button leads nowhere”). A follow-up can carry its own text, one link and up to 3 buttons of its own. See Follow-up messages.

Two rules stop you from publishing something that would quietly fail:

• A message cannot mix a link button and a quick reply. Instagram shows one kind, so one would vanish. Move the link into the quick reply’s follow-up, or split them.
• On a comment trigger, the first reply carries the opening message’s quick-reply button, so a link button can’t ride with it. Put the link inside the follow-up that arrives after they tap. The opening message and the tap are explained in Access gate and follow check.

What changes by plan

If you already had two buttons saved before a plan change, they keep working and you can edit the automation freely. The plan check only applies when you newly add a second button. Full details are on Plans and features.

When Instagram will not show buttons

Instagram sometimes refuses buttons to people who do not follow you. When that happens Dartzo sends a plain-text version instead of nothing. If your message already contains the link, it goes out as it is and counts as delivered. If the link was only on the button, the message asks them to reply and waits for that reply.

On Pro and above you can write that text-only version yourself. Open Settings (Simple) or the add-ons (Advanced), turn on If buttons can’t be sent, and write your own wording. Include your link if you want to hand it over straight away. A text-only message can be up to 1000 characters.

Tracked links

Before a link goes out, Dartzo swaps it for a short address of the form /r/ followed by a short code, on Dartzo’s own domain. When the fan taps it, we record the click and send them straight to your real page, with utm_source=instagram and utm_medium=dm added so your own analytics can tell where they came from. This is what powers the click counts in your analytics. See Tracked links for how to read them.

• Links to Instagram itself (your profile, a post) are not wrapped. They go out untouched so Instagram opens them natively, for example straight to a profile with its Follow button.
• If tracking is ever unavailable, the original link is sent unchanged. The fan still gets a working link.
• If you fix a wrong destination later, Pro and above can have links already sent updated. That applies to the link in the message text. Button links are not rewritten for people who already got them. See Pause, edit and delete.

A realistic example

A Pune bakery posts a Reel of an eggless brownie recipe. The automation fires on the word BROWNIE:

Hey! Here’s the full eggless brownie recipe, with the ingredient list in grams 🍫

[ Get the recipe ]  ← link button, 14 characters

To add the bakery’s ₹499 baking-class page as well, they add a second link titled Join the class (Pro). Both are separate buttons, each with its own https link.