Scheduled Trigger
Run a flow at a set time, on a repeating schedule or relative to a date on the contact
The Scheduled Trigger runs a flow without waiting for a message. Use it for daily digests, birthday messages, appointment reminders and delayed follow-ups. It starts a flow only on its schedule. A contact's incoming message never starts it.
Scheduled triggers need the Pro or Enterprise plan. On Pro they count toward a shared limit of 25 scheduled items. See Limits & Permissions.
Two Modes
The first step asks how the trigger is scheduled.
| Mode | When the flow runs |
|---|---|
| Specific time | At a set date and time, or on a repeating schedule |
| Relative to contact field | Before or after a date stored on each contact, such as a birthday or an appointment |
Specific Time
Use this when everyone gets the flow at the same time.
Under Recurrence, choose Once or Recurring.
Once
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Run at | The date and time to run. It starts 2 minutes from now. |
| Timezone | The zone the time is in. It defaults to your current timezone. |
The flow runs once, within a minute of that time.
Recurring
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Daily, Weekly or Monthly |
| Time of day | The hour and minute |
| On days | For Weekly, the days of the week. Select at least one. |
| Day of month | For Monthly, a day from 1 to 31 |
| Timezone | The zone the schedule follows |
For example, Weekly on Mon at 09:00 runs every Monday at 09:00 in the zone you chose.
A recurring schedule runs for the whole audience each time. A daily trigger on 100000 contacts starts 100000 flow runs every day. Narrow the audience with a filter.
Relative to Contact Field
Use this when the time depends on a date on each contact, such as a birthday, an appointment or a renewal.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Reference date field | The date field on the contact profile |
| Offset amount | A number |
| Offset unit | Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks or Months |
| Direction | Before or After the date |
For example, set Reference date field to appointment_date, Offset amount to 24, Offset unit to Hours and Direction to Before. A contact with an appointment on 10 May at 10:00 gets the flow on 9 May at 10:00. If they change the appointment, the flow runs for the new date.
The flow runs once for each value of the date field. To run it again for a contact, change the date.
Audience Filter
For both modes, you can limit who gets the flow. Click Add condition and pick a profile field, an operator and a value. Conditions combine with AND.
With no conditions, the flow runs for all contacts. The step shows how many contacts match. For a one-off send to a group, a broadcast is often simpler.
Review and Create
The review shows the schedule, timezone and audience. Click Create Trigger to save.
Publishing
A scheduled trigger runs only while the flow is published. If you edit the trigger and have unpublished changes, it pauses until you publish again.
Messaging Window
A scheduled trigger starts without a message from the contact, so the 24 hour window may be closed.
| Channel | Outside the 24 hour window |
|---|---|
| Telegram | Any card. There is no window. |
| Viber | Any card. Out-of-session messages may cost extra. |
| Start with a Template card. | |
| Delivery fails. |
To cover several channels, add a Condition card and send WhatsApp contacts to a template.
Common Uses
- Daily digest. Recurring, Daily at 09:00, with a filter on a topic field.
- Birthday message. Relative to contact field on a birthday field, 0 days, After.
- Appointment reminder. 24 hours Before an appointment date.
- Renewal notice. 7 days Before a renewal date.
- Monthly recap. Monthly on day 1 at 08:00.
Related
- Broadcasts: a one-off scheduled send to a filtered audience.
- Limits & Permissions: the shared cap on scheduled items.
- Triggers: all trigger types.