LinkedIn replies, stop on reply and where replies show
How Distro detects LinkedIn replies, why every reply stops that person's follow-ups, where LinkedIn replies show up in Distro, and where to read and answer them.
When a prospect replies to you on LinkedIn, Distro stops all of their remaining follow-ups. This Stop on reply rule is always on and can't be turned off. Distro checks for a reply before every message it sends, so a follow-up never goes to someone who has already answered.
How Distro detects replies
The extension checks the prospect's LinkedIn conversation in your Chrome at two moments:
- During a wait. While a prospect is waiting for their next message, Distro checks the conversation about once a day.
- Right before each message. Just before sending, the extension opens the conversation and checks again. The message is only sent if the check clearly shows no reply.
- Message is due
- Extension checks the LinkedIn conversation
- Reply found: sequence stops, nothing sent
- No reply: message sent
- Couldn't read the conversation: nothing sent
Any message from the prospect counts as a reply, including a short "thanks" or an out-of-office note. If you want to keep the conversation going, answer them yourself.
Where LinkedIn replies show up
Distro shows that someone replied on LinkedIn, and stops their follow-ups. The reply itself stays on LinkedIn.
| Where | What you see |
|---|---|
| LinkedIn campaign | Open the campaign from the LinkedIn tab of Campaigns, then View live run. The person moves to Replied, with "The prospect replied; the sequence stopped". If the reply arrived just before a scheduled message, the run shows "Prospect replied just before the message; not sent". |
| Email + LinkedIn campaign | In Campaigns, open the campaign's ⋮ menu and choose View results. Replied shows the total, split into email and LinkedIn. Click a person to see their timeline: "Stopped: They replied on LinkedIn". |
| Outreach Overview | Replies · 30 days on Overview counts email and LinkedIn replies together. |
| The Distro extension | In the side panel's Campaigns tab, Recent shows "They replied, follow-ups stopped", and each running campaign shows its count of replies. |
The Outreach Inbox holds email replies only, and the Replies to answer count on the Overview is for email replies. LinkedIn replies don't appear in either.
In an Email + LinkedIn campaign, a reply on either channel stops the flow for that person. Before an email step goes out, Distro also checks LinkedIn for a reply ("Checking LinkedIn for a reply before this email" on the person's timeline).
"Couldn't check"
Sometimes Distro can't read a conversation, for example when the page doesn't load properly. In that case it never guesses: the message is not sent and that person's sequence stops. The run page shows a Couldn't check notice listing the people affected, with Open on LinkedIn links. Open the conversation, see whether they replied, and follow up by hand if it makes sense.
If the daily reply checks during a wait can't read a conversation three times in a row, Distro also stops that person for your review.
Where to read and answer replies
Read and answer LinkedIn replies on LinkedIn itself. With the Distro extension, Distro detects that someone replied and stops their follow-ups, but it doesn't currently copy your LinkedIn conversations into Distro or send replies for you.
Replying keeps the sequence stopped
Once someone has replied, Distro never restarts their sequence on its own. Your own messages on LinkedIn don't restart it either. If you later add the same person to another campaign, Distro's checks still apply: anyone already invited from your account through Distro, or already queued in another running campaign, is left out.
Accepted, pending and other outcomes
Replies aren't the only reason a sequence ends:
| Outcome | What happened |
|---|---|
| No acceptance | They didn't accept the invitation within the waiting time. |
| Skipped | You were already connected, or an invitation was already pending. |
| Stopped | The prospect became ineligible, for example you marked them do not contact or archived them. |
| Unknown outcome | Distro couldn't confirm whether a request or message went out. It never retries that step; check LinkedIn. |
For how a campaign's steps and waits work, see Create a LinkedIn campaign. For email replies, see How stop-on-reply works. For campaigns that mix both channels, see Email + LinkedIn campaigns.
Email us at hello@usedistro.com with what you tried and what you see. Signed in? Help & support in the app has walkthrough videos and a message form.