How do I turn an automation on?

1. Open Extensions → Automations. The Off tab lists the ones not running.
2. Flip the switch on the automation's row — or press Turn It On at the foot of its panel, or choose Turn On from its ⋯ menu. All three open the same check; none of them turns it on yet.
3. Read the check, headed Turn On This Automation Flow.
4. Press Turn On. It reads Turn On Anyway instead when the check cannot reach you, names nobody, or finds people it cannot reach. Cancel leaves it off.

A sequence you took from Browse is added switched off too, so it comes through this same check.

Five stops, top to bottom, in the order a run happens:

1. When — its schedule and shape, such as Starts Every Day · 9:00am · 3 Steps Over 12 Days · Once Each, and when it next starts people: Next Tomorrow, 9:00am.
2. Who — It goes through the audience you picked.
3. What it costs — when you are charged, and the figure once a run comes to more than 50 credits or more than your balance. When steps are charged at different moments, a line under it names which.
4. Where it reaches you — This run will reach you on Telegram, or whichever channel you chose.
5. How it reaches them — Each one goes out on the first channel that reaches that person, each channel with how many people it is the first to reach, then a line such as Nobody is left out — 40 of 40 are reachable.

On a New Leads automation the check speaks of one lead at a time: under who, Each new lead who comes in from now on goes through this once.; the cost of one lead; and each channel without a count.

No. Nothing on it is a block. The lines about the whole list:

• This names nobody right now. — the audience is empty today.
• Your balance is 12 credits, so this will only send to 6 of the 20.
• 3 of the 40 can’t be reached at all — no number and no email.
• 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. — WhatsApp contacts who have not contacted you in the past 24 hours, on a step that goes as a normal message.
• 18 of 40 have a property on file. — a step needs a detail some people lack.

If the check cannot load at all, it says Couldn’t work out what this will do right now — you can still turn it on.

A Give Instructions step with nothing in Your Instructions is the one thing that stops the check opening: the switch stays off and the top of the list says Add your instructions to step 2., naming that step. Press Edit, write the instructions in that step, press Save Changes, and flip the switch again.

A step PropKaki writes says About 34 of them haven’t messaged you in 24 hours, so once you approve a run, Meta approves each message too. A step that sends a template or your own words gets lines of its own:

• Step 2 (Template · …): about 12 of them haven’t messaged you in 24 hours, so it goes as your template, and Meta bills your WhatsApp account for each one.
• Step 2 (…) is waiting on Meta. About 12 of them haven’t messaged you in 24 hours — they get it from your number as soon as it’s approved.
• Step 2 (…) can’t go out as a template right now. About 12 of them haven’t messaged you in 24 hours — they get its words once Meta approves them as a new message.
• Step 2’s template was deleted, so nothing goes out for it until you choose another.
• Step 3 (…): 3 have no property on file, so their message isn’t finished — they wait in Follow-Ups for you. (Follow-Ups is now Today: they wait under Automations Waiting for You.)

The last one has Drop the Blank beside it. It takes that blank out of the step's words, saves the automation and closes the check; on a Use Template step the words are then yours, and go as your own message. Flip the switch again to see it as it now stands.

The fourth stop is where PropKaki reaches you: the channel each step asks you on, Telegram or WhatsApp — This run will reach you on Telegram and WhatsApp when the steps use both. If one is not connected, the line reads You asked for this to be run on Telegram, but it is not connected at the moment, with a Connect Telegram button that opens Extensions → Connectors.

You can still turn it on. It keeps filling your queue in the app; what is missing is the message to you on that channel.

Its switch comes on and its icon turns blue — with an amber Sends Itself beside its name on Send Automatically — it now appears under On, and the count at the foot of the list goes up by one — 5 automations · 3 running.

Turning it on sends nothing by itself. The first people start when its schedule next comes round — the Next line on the check. An On Command automation waits until you type its command, and a New Leads one starts each new lead as they come in.

Saving any change to a running automation switches it off — Save Changes in its editor, or a new choice under Who It Goes Through or It Checks With You in its panel. The switch goes off straight away.

Flip the switch again and the check shows the automation as it now stands. Closing the editor without saving leaves it running: it asks Discard your changes?, and Discard Changes leaves it as it was before you opened it.