Feature update: look after your community straight from maebe
The comments under your Instagram, Facebook and YouTube posts now come together in the very place where you plan and approve them — and your whole team can reply, not only the person holding the login.
Anyone running channels for someone else knows the break in the middle: the post is planned, reviewed, approved and published — and everything that happens afterwards happens somewhere else entirely. The questions under the post, the messages beside it. Only whoever holds the login can see them, usually in the evening on a phone, and only after switching profiles.
That is the gap we closed last week. The comments under your Instagram, Facebook and YouTube posts now come together in the very place where you plan and approve your posts — and a whole team can work on them, not just one person. The new area is called Community.
What this changes
In the overview, the comments from all connected accounts sit side by side, regardless of who created which post. Posts that never went out through maebe are included too — so you don't start with an empty list, but find the existing history of your channels.
Replying, hiding, unhiding and deleting all happen in this one place, without opening the platform's app. Which of these options exist is decided by the platform, though, not by us: a like on an individual comment, for example, is only available on Facebook.
The more important difference isn't the overview itself, but the question of who is allowed to work with it. Until now, a reply required the account's login — or a setup of your own in the Meta Business Suite that somebody configures, maintains and extends for every new person on the team. Anyone who has done that inside a company knows how many steps it involves. With us it follows the roles already assigned in your team: whoever creates and publishes posts may also reply to comments. Whoever is still settling in reads along without writing. No second permission system needed.
So that nobody on a team replies twice or overlooks a message, the overview keeps track: a comment counts as open until someone has answered it or marked it as done. If a follow-up question arrives later in the same thread, it reappears.
When a question doesn't belong under the post
Not every message is one you want to answer in front of an audience. So a comment can be answered privately right away — the public question then turns into a direct message.
Messages from Instagram and Facebook Messenger also get an inbox of their own. The team's owner has to enable it, and it is switched off by default: an inbox is a considerably more personal thing than a comment section, and no tool should take that decision away from anyone. Once enabled, you work in the conversation exactly as you would expect — with text and emoji, an image, a reaction, and delivery and read status. Incoming voice messages can be played right there.
A tool, not a second Instagram app
One peculiarity becomes apparent quickly: replying isn't possible at any time you like. Meta allows businesses 24 hours to respond freely to a message. After that, a personal reply to the enquiry is still permitted for up to seven days, though without promotional content (Meta's rules for Messenger and Instagram). Afterwards the window is closed.
This is not a limit we drew. It is written into the interfaces such messages travel through, and it is passed on to us from there. Ignoring it puts the account's messaging function at risk. That is why we count it down visibly instead of keeping quiet about it: every conversation shows how much time is left, and conversations whose window is about to expire sit at the top of the overview.
That also describes the honest limit of this area. It won't work entirely without the platform's own app — with a closed window, with a function the interfaces don't offer, or in a special case only the platform itself knows about. That applies to every tool working on someone else's channels, and we would rather put it plainly than talk around it.
Everything that can sensibly be brought together in one place, we do bring together. The everyday work — noticing, replying and marking as done — happens in one place, for all connected accounts, and prepared so that a team can work with it rather than a single person holding a phone. For the special cases, the platform's app remains the right address; for everyday work you no longer need to open it.
Which platforms are supported
We currently support comments for Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and messages for Instagram and Facebook Messenger. TikTok and LinkedIn aren't included yet; nothing changes there for publishing and statistics.
One thing has to be done once: for the comments, your accounts need more permissions than for publishing alone. Existing connections therefore have to be reconnected a single time. Your connection, your posts and your statistics are all fully preserved.
Community is part of Social Connect
Community isn't booked on its own; it belongs to Social Connect — the package that connects your channels to maebe in the first place. It holds three things:
- Publishing. Your posts are published automatically at the planned time, without anyone having to be reminded and do it themselves. What is possible and what the platforms don't allow is described in detail elsewhere.
- Statistics. Real numbers for your published posts. Among other things, your best posting times come out of them.
- Community. The comments and, if you wish, the messages.
How many accounts you can connect depends on the tier you book. There is a reason Social Connect is an add-on rather than part of every plan: anyone who only plans and publishes manually shouldn't have to pay for the connection. Which plan costs what is on the home page.
How things continue
The area is still young, and we are building it out while it runs. A few directions we are currently looking at: templates for replies that repeat anyway, a way to assign a conversation to someone on the team and add a note, and labels for arranging comments by topic. When any of that arrives, we'll say so once we know for certain.
If something is missing or strikes you as odd, we'd be glad to hear from you. The feedback from these first weeks helps us set the order.
If you'd like to go deeper, or need help somewhere, everything is described in detail in the help centre: Community – comments and messages.
This article was written with the help of AI. Research, claims and point of view were reviewed and are owned by Kristof.
