How do I choose what an automation says?
Updated 29 September 2026
The Short Answer
Each step of an automation says its own thing — an automation that sends one message is a sequence of one step. Open the step in the editor and pick one of nine under What do you want to do?: Use Template sends one of your templates, Write Myself your own words, and the rest are drafted for you.
It is set step by step, so step 1 can share a useful read while step 3 checks in.
Where do I set what it says?
- Open Extensions → Automations and click the automation.
- Press Edit at the foot of the panel on the right.
- Click a step in the drawing. Its settings open in the panel beside it; on a phone the step opens as its own screen, and ‹ Flow takes you back.
- Set the step, then press Save Changes.
It worked when the step's tile on the drawing shows its new title, its channel and its day — Day 0, Day 5, Day 12. A card on the Browse tab opens the same editor on a ready-made sequence, where the button reads Use This Sequence. If the automation was on, saving switches it off until you turn it on again.
What kinds of message can a step be?
What do you want to do? offers nine, each with a line under it saying what it does: Auto · Send Update · Share Content · Send Invite · Ask to Talk · Check In · Send Greeting · Use Template · Write Myself. It is the list the Message panel in Prospecting has, without Reply, Use Draft and Give Instructions.
Most then ask a second question — What do you want to update on?, What's the occasion? and so on. Left blank, the kind you picked decides; pick an answer to narrow it. Auto picks the best message for each person.
The step's tile on the drawing is named the same way — Send Update, or Update · Transactions once you answer the second question. The line at the top of the step names its move — Says hello, Gives something or Asks again — and the tile takes that colour.
How do I send my own words?
Pick Write Myself and the step gets a box, The Message That Goes Out, for up to 1,024 characters. It is sent word for word — nothing is redrafted. Leave it empty and the step sends nothing: nobody is written to at that step until you fill it.
Put {{name}} where their name should go. Every blank is filled from each person's profile, and the strip under the box shows how many of the people it goes through have one on file. Anyone missing one waits in Follow-Ups for you.
Every other kind has an Add any details box instead, and what you type there shapes the draft. An invite with nothing in it is written as a general invite; add the what, the when and the where to name the event.
Should everyone get the same message?
Message Type is on every step except Write Myself and Use Template, which send fixed words:
| Choice | What it writes |
|---|---|
| Generic Message | One message for everyone. |
| Fill-In Message | One message, filled in for each person. |
| Customised Message | A different message for each person. |
A new step starts on Customised Message. If a step's subject cannot be written one way — one message for everyone about each person's own place, say — that choice is greyed out with the reason under it. The choice also changes what a run costs.
Which channel does each step use?
How It Goes Out offers WhatsApp, Email or Leave It In The App, and the next step can use a different one.
For people a step's own channel cannot reach, click the node under the last step — it shows your approval level — and set If A Step Can’t Reach Someone: the channels to try, in order. It reads No Fallbacks until you add one.
Anything To Attach adds up to 2 files to a step. A Use Template step on WhatsApp cannot take one: A template's shape is fixed by Meta, so it can't carry a file.
Will a WhatsApp step need a template?
For anyone who has not contacted you in the past 24 hours, yes. WhatsApp lets a normal message go out on its own only to someone who has; everyone else becomes a link you send yourself. A Use Template step goes to them as your template instead, once Meta has approved it.
The turn-on check counts the rest before anything runs: Each run, about 12 of them will not go out automatically, per Meta’s rules … Choose Use Template on that step to send it automatically. It shows only when a step goes as a normal message on WhatsApp. An Email step has no 24-hour limit.
How do I send one of my templates from a step?
- Pick Use Template under What do you want to do?. The Use a Template list opens, each one marked Approved by Meta or Waiting on Meta, and either kind can be picked.
- Press one — or press Write a New One at the foot, write it and press Submit and Use Now, and it lands on the step waiting on Meta.
The tile then reads Template · and its name. Above the box are the name, its status and Change Template. Until it is approved, a WhatsApp step gives you a link to send yourself for anyone who has not written to you in 24 hours.
Keep the words as they are and the step follows the template, so a change you make under Extensions → Templates reaches it too. Change them on the step and it goes as a normal message; on WhatsApp a line says so, with Create a Template to turn your words into a new template for this step.