How comments work across each social network in Buffer Community
Every network feeds comments into Community a little differently. How quickly comments show up, what's supported, and how @ mentions behave all vary by platform. Use this article to see what to expect for the network you're working in.
📝 New to Community? Start with Using Community in Buffer for how to reply, sort, like, and manage comments.
In this article:
- How LinkedIn comments work in Community
- How Bluesky comments work in Community
- How X/Twitter comments work in Community
- How Google Business Profile reviews work in Community
- How Instagram comments work in Community
- How Threads comments work in Community
- How TikTok comments work in Community
- How Mastodon comments work in Community
- How YouTube comments work in Community
- FAQ
How LinkedIn comments work in Community
LinkedIn pages use a real-time system to send new comments to Buffer shortly after they're posted. Most comments appear in Buffer within a few seconds to 1 to 2 minutes, depending on how quickly LinkedIn delivers them. To receive comments in real time, your LinkedIn page must be subscribed to these updates. We automatically try to enable this in the background, but if you're not seeing new comments, try refreshing the channel.
LinkedIn profiles don't support real-time updates. Instead, Buffer checks for new comments about every 6 hours. We're working to improve this for faster updates.
📝 Good to Know: Why do some comment authors appear as "Private account"? This happens when the commenter has a LinkedIn privacy setting turned on that prevents apps like Buffer from accessing their profile information unless they've explicitly given permission. This is expected behavior on LinkedIn's side.
How Bluesky comments work in Community
Bluesky uses a real-time system to send new comments to Buffer shortly after they're posted. Most Bluesky comments appear in Buffer within a few seconds to two minutes.
⚠️ Due to Bluesky's API limits, Buffer can only pull in comments on posts published through Buffer.
- If you publish your Bluesky posts via Buffer, all comments will appear in your Community tab.
- If you publish posts natively on Bluesky or through another platform, you'll need to check your Bluesky notifications for comments on those posts.
How X/Twitter comments work in Community
If you're on a paid plan, Buffer automatically backfills comments on your X (formerly Twitter) posts from the past 30 days when you connect or refresh your channel in Community. Free plan users will only see comments from new posts going forward.
Once your channel is connected, comments arrive in near real time, so you can respond promptly from within Community.
📝 Good to knows:
- Customers with an unverified X/Twitter account are limited to 200 replies per day.
- Reply suggestions aren't supported for X/Twitter. Due to limitations in X's API, smart reply options aren't available for this platform.
How Google Business Profile reviews work in Community
You can reply to customer reviews directly from Community, and your response publishes to your Google Business Profile.
When a review includes a star rating, Buffer offers reply suggestions to help you craft a response quickly. You can use a suggestion as-is, edit it, or write your own reply from scratch.
Buffer uses a real-time integration with Google's API to pull new reviews into Community. Most reviews appear shortly after publication, though delays of up to 2 hours may occur.
Reviews can include media. If a reviewer attaches photos or a video, you'll see them on the review in Community: a single image appears as an image, a single video as a video, and multiple attachments appear as a carousel.
📝 Notes:
- Google Business Profile reviews are supported in List view, not By Post view, since reviews are tied to your business location (channel) rather than individual posts.
- Review media support is for new reviews going forward (starting 2026-06-10). Older reviews already in Community won't retroactively get their attached media added.
- Replies you send from Community are text-only. Google Business Profile doesn't accept media on review replies, so you can't attach images or videos to your reply even though you can see media on incoming reviews.
💡 Tip: Reply suggestions are especially helpful if you're managing a high volume of reviews and want to respond consistently without starting from scratch each time.
How Instagram comments work in Community
Instagram uses a real-time webhook connection to send new comments to Buffer, the same mechanism used for Facebook and Threads. Most comments appear in Buffer within a few minutes of being posted.
📝 Good to know: Instagram support in Community is limited to professional accounts (Business or Creator). See Connecting your Instagram account to Buffer if you need to switch your account type.
⚠️ Comments on boosted posts or ads aren't pulled into Community. Only comments on organic Instagram posts are supported.
How Threads comments work in Community
Most Threads comments appear in Buffer within one to two minutes.
How TikTok comments work in Community
Most TikTok comments appear in Buffer between a few seconds and two minutes.
How Mastodon comments work in Community
Mastodon comments don't arrive in real time. Instead, Buffer checks for new comments approximately every 4 hours and backfills them when you visit the Community tab.
- Comments on your Mastodon posts appear in Community after the next scheduled sync, up to 4 hours after they're posted.
- Each time you open Community, Buffer syncs your latest Mastodon comments so you're up to date.
- You can reply to and react on Mastodon comments directly within Community.
How YouTube comments work in Community
To get started with YouTube comments in Community, refresh your YouTube channel connection to grant the new comments permission. Head to your Channels settings to refresh the connection.
Once refreshed:
- Buffer backfills recent YouTube comments so you can start engaging right away, not just comments going forward.
- You can reply to top-level comments and nested replies.
- You can like YouTube comments directly in Community.
- @ mentions in comments are fully supported.
📝 Good to knows:
- If comments are disabled on a video by the creator, those videos won't show comments in Community.
- Comments using YouTube's built-in emoji set may not display in Community; standard emoji are supported.
FAQ
Which social networks are supported?
You can reply to comments on Threads, Instagram professional accounts, Bluesky, X/Twitter, Facebook pages, LinkedIn profiles and pages, TikTok, Mastodon, Google Business Profiles, and YouTube through Community. We plan to add more channels in the future.
Buffer can only pull in comments from organic posts, so you can't use Community to reply to comments on ads.
Why don't I see comments for some of my posts in Community?
Some post types aren't supported for comment collection in Community, even when the channel itself is supported. You'll see "Comments not available for this post" in the right panel and a ban icon on the post in the side panel. This includes:
- Reminder posts (notification publishing, like Instagram stories, Instagram reminders, and Facebook Group reminders). These publish natively from your phone, so comments live on the social network and aren't pulled into Buffer.
- Instagram and Facebook stories: Comments and replies on stories aren't available through the platform APIs.
- Google Business Profile posts: Only Google Business Profile reviews are pulled into Community (and only in List view). Individual GBP posts don't have a comment surface.
The post will still appear in the sidepanel for context, but you'll need to manage any conversation on it natively in the social network's app or website.
Why does a comment show "Media type not available"?
Some comments, most often TikTok sticker-only comments, can't be shown in Buffer because the platform doesn't send anything we can display. Instead of leaving the comment blank, we show a "Media type not available" placeholder so you know it's not a bug. If the original comment is public, you'll also see an Open Thread link to view it on the original platform. This applies to both top-level comments and replies.
Can I include @ mentions in my replies within Community?
You can use @ mentions for Threads, Instagram, Bluesky, YouTube, and X/Twitter by typing the @username within your reply. The @ mention won't be hyperlinked in Buffer, but the tag will be live once published, as long as you type the username correctly. LinkedIn, TikTok, and Facebook @ mentions aren't supported within Community at this time.
📝 Need help with Community? Send us an email at hello@buffer.com and our Advocacy team will be standing by to assist!