Overview
Automations are visual workflows: a trigger starts a run, then actions and conditions decide what happens next. Drafts stay private until you publish. You can import/export automations and use A/B split actions on supported plans.
Start from a template
Dashboard → Automations → Templates includes ready-made journeys (for example comment-to-DM patterns) you can customize.
Publish flow
Open Automations
Go to Dashboard → Automations and create a new automation or open a template.
Choose a trigger
Pick a channel-aware trigger (message, comment, keyword, story mention, postback, and similar events supported by the connected channel).
Add actions
Send DMs, buttons, or cards; tag contacts; delay; A/B split; call AI prompts; or branch with conditions.
Publish
Save, then publish. Unpublished drafts do not run against live traffic. Pause or archive when you need to stop live runs.
If an automation is paused
Check channel connection health (including permission reauth), plan usage and Flow balance, and whether Meta or WhatsApp messaging windows or template rules blocked sends. Review recent runs and Workbench audit entries for the actor and entity involved.
Schedules: business hours and holidays
Each automation can have its own schedule, so it only starts when you want it to.
- A start date and an end date
- Weekly hours, in your business's time zone
- Holidays: skip them, or run only on holidays, for example for a holiday greeting
- Holiday dates from your business calendar under Settings → Inbox, plus up to 100 dates of its own
- Inside a flow, a "within business hours" condition lets one automation answer differently in and out of hours
Schedule notes
- A schedule only stops new starts. A conversation that is already running continues.
- There is no separate away-message switch: build one as an automation that runs outside your business hours.
- If business hours are not set, the schedule counts as open.
- A ready-made holiday list is available for Türkiye (2026 to 2028). For other countries, add your dates.
- Schedules are on every plan.
Describe an automation in a sentence
When you create an automation, choose Describe it and write what you want, for example: When someone comments "price" on my post, send them the price list link. ChatinFlow reads the sentence without any AI key and builds a draft for you to check and publish. Nothing goes live until you publish it.
What it understands
- The channel: Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber or your website chat
- How it starts: a comment, an Instagram Live comment, a story reply, a DM or the first message
- Keywords in quotes, up to 10
- Steps such as sending a link or a code, adding a tag, telling your team, asking for an email or phone number, and a follow-up message
- A public reply is added only for Instagram comments.
- On Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp a follow-up waits at most 23 hours, so it stays inside the messaging window.
- It works best in English and Turkish.
React to messages with an emoji
A react step puts an emoji on the contact's latest message, a light way to say "got it" before the reply.
Reactions are sent from flows. Sending a reaction by hand from the Inbox is not available.
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