A flow is a conversation you write ahead of time. Each step sends a message or waits for the customer, and each answer can lead somewhere different. Flows are on the Gold plan and higher, and you find them under Automations, in the Flows tab.
An automation answers one message. A flow can keep going: offer numbered choices, wait for the answer, and reply to each answer differently.
Where a flow runs
Flows run on Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram. Under Starts when you choose:
- Which messages: Contains words (any one of the words you list, in any letter case) or Any message.
- Where: A DM, A comment, or A DM or a comment. On Telegram, flows start from direct messages only.
A flow that starts on a comment must begin with a message. It goes out as the private reply to the comment, and each comment gets one. The rest of the flow continues once the customer writes back in DM.
Steps
| Step | What it does |
|---|---|
| Send a message | Sends text. Insert contact name puts in the person’s name. |
| Message with numbered choices | Sends up to 13 choices, 20 characters each, as a numbered list. The customer answers with the number or the words. |
| Wait for a reply | Waits for the customer and sorts the answer by the words you list. |
| Delay | Waits before the next step. |
| AI reply | Answers the customer’s last message with AI. Uses your AI replies quota. |
| Add a tag | Tags the conversation. |
| Move to stage | Moves the contact forward to Interested or Customer, never back. A stage someone on your team set is kept. |
| Assign to a user | Assigns the conversation to a teammate. An existing assignment is never replaced. |
| Write a row to a spreadsheet | Adds a row to Google Sheets. See write rows to Google Sheets. |
| End | Ends the flow. |
A choice step or a wait step has a branch for each answer, one for “If they reply something else”, and one for “If there’s no reply”. Stop waiting after goes up to 23 hours, so the no-reply branch can still send inside Meta’s 24-hour window.
How a flow runs
- Flows go before automations. When a flow takes a message, no automation answers it.
- When more than one flow matches, the oldest flow that is on starts.
- A person can be in a flow only once at a time. Their DMs while the flow waits are answers to the flow.
- The flow stops for that person when someone on your team replies in the conversation.
- On Facebook and Instagram, a message more than 24 hours after the customer’s last DM is skipped, and the flow carries on.
- Messages from a flow count toward your conversation quota, like automatic replies. See what counts as a conversation.
Test, turn on, and change a flow
Open the Try it tab to run a test: type what a customer would write and answer as them. Nothing is sent.
Save keeps your changes as a draft. Turn on starts the flow for new people. When you change a flow that is on, click Save, then Publish changes. People already in the flow finish on the version they started. Pause stops new people from starting it, and people already in it finish.
Each flow that is on counts as one automation in your plan’s limit. The flow list shows how many people are in progress, finished, or stopped.
Owners and admins can change flows. Other users can open them and run a test.
Start from a template
Automations, Templates has ready-made flows, such as a menu of common questions or taking an order in DM. Fill in the parts in [brackets] before you save.
If your plan changes
On Silver, the free trial, or a read-only workspace, flows are locked and do not run. Flows you already made stay as they are, and you can still pause or delete them.