Request your archive from Meta.
Instagram → Settings → Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Download your information. Format JSON (not HTML). Pick the date range that fits your need (last 1-2 years is usually plenty). Backline reads only the messages out of the full export, so you don't need to filter type — saves you a click.
Meta emails you the file within a few minutes to a few hours (up to 24h for very large archives). It's the only way — no scraping, no API, no hack. Your data, officially yours.
Open Meta's download page →- accountscenter.instagram.com
- Your information and permissions
- Download your information
- Messages · JSON · All time
Connect your CRM.
Open Backline and click Connect Notion or Connect Google. Single OAuth round-trip. No template to duplicate, no manual setup — Backline creates the database (or sheet) for you the first time you push.
You only do this once. Same connection re-used on every future run.
Go to the app →Drop it on the app.
Don't unpack anything. Just drag-and-drop the file Meta sent you onto Backline's upload zone. Or click to browse.
The file never leaves your browser. Everything unpacks in memory. No upload, no server storage, no cloud. That's a design choice, not a marketing line.
Backline classifies every DM.
Each conversation is parsed and run through Claude Sonnet to detect role, zone, country, city, booking level — and to generate a short narrative summary. Spam and one-liners get auto-filtered.
~30 minutes for a typical archive. Grab a coffee. Leave the tab open. The browser does the work.
1-click push, open your list.
When the run finishes, click Push to Notion (or Push to Google Sheets). Backline creates the database (or sheet) on first push, schemas all 8 columns — Thread ID, Handle, Zone, Country, City, Role, Level, Summary — and writes every contact in one go. Direct IG DM link on every row.
Click Open contact list → in your browser. That's it. Sortable, filterable, taggable — go talk to the people you forgot existed.