Instagram generic_xma postback buttons are hidden from GraphQL

[giuseppebisemi]

Creator bots (Manychat and similar comment-to-DM flows) send DM cards with tappable buttons. Instagram iOS renders those buttons. GraphQL usually returns placeholder, so the bridge emits the unsupported-message stub. Instagram web does the same, so this is not a Matrix client bug.

I fetched the same thread with GET /api/v1/direct_v2/threads/{thread_id}/ on www.instagram.com, using the existing useragent.AndroidUserAgent and X-IG-App-ID: 567067343352427. That returns item_type=generic_xma and a cta_buttons array. Two shapes:

• cta_type=xma_web_url plus action_url. These can be HTML links. GraphQL already parses cta_buttons on XMA; if action_url is set, wrapXMACaption can emit an <a>. That change is small and I can send it as its own PR.

• cta_type=postback, empty action_url, payload of the form 1:GT-PB:ACT::<hex>. Typing the button title as a normal DM does not run the bot. Manychat waits for Instagram's messaging_postbacks webhook.

An iOS tap later shows up in Direct as text plus send_attribution=business_generic_template. After the fact, that stored item looks a lot like IGDirectTextSendMutation with the same attribution. Manychat still ignores the GraphQL send. The webhook cares about the write path, not the fields sitting on the item afterwards.

POST /api/v1/direct_v2/threads/broadcast/text/ with web cookies redirected to /accounts/login/ and cleared sessionid. GET with the Android UA did not. I would not call that POST from a cookie login.

The send that did fire messaging_postbacks went over the existing mqttbypass socket, topic /ig_send_message (same path typing uses):

{
  "action": "send_item",
  "item_type": "text",
  "text": "<button title>",
  "send_attribution": "business_generic_template",
  "cta_type": "postback",
  "postback_payload": "1:GT-PB:ACT::<hex>"
}

plus thread_id / client_context as usual.

I have a local patch that GETs the thread (Android UA) to recover the buttons, then sends taps over MQTT. It is a workaround: Android UA on a web session, and an undocumented MQTT payload. I would understand if that stayed out of tree. Native button chips in the Matrix client are a client problem either way.

If you want the GET+MQTT patch I can open a PR. If not, this issue is the writeup.