You will learn
Learn what manual mode is and how to use it to manually send flow messages. There are several instances where you might want to review a flow message before it sends. For instance, if you want to check who gets your messages or if you are testing a flow. In this case, setting flow messages to manual mode is your best option.
About manual mode
When you are done configuring a new email or SMS and are interested in testing it out, you can place it in manual mode. To change the status of a message:
- Click on the message.
- Change the status in the left-hand panel.
- You can also toggle a message's status on the card itself.
When a message is in manual, it is active in your flow but no emails or SMS will send automatically at send time; you will need to review and send all scheduled messages manually.
Sending messages that need review
When a message's status is manual, at send time, each recipient will move to the Needs Review tab. This means they will not receive messages automatically — you will need to manually review the emails and SMS before they are sent out.
If you click on a given email or SMS, in the left-hand panel you will see an Analytics(30 Days) section that shows email or SMS activity from the last 30 days. Here, you will see how many recipients require your review.
To view recipients on the Needs Review list, click View all Analytics in this sidebar. Doing so will take you to the full recipient activity report for the message. When you click Needs Review in the sidebar, you will be taken directly to this list of recipients.
You can individually preview, send, and/or cancel each email and SMS that requires your review. If you have a lot of recipients that need review, you can bulk send and cancel messages with the Send All and Cancel All buttons, respectively. If you send an email or SMS to a contact who is in Needs Review and no longer meets the filters for the flow, they will be skipped and will not receive the message.
Turning a message from manual to live
When you turn an email or SMS from manual to live, recipients that are scheduled in the Waiting tab will automatically receive the message at send time. However, recipients who are in the Needs Review tab will remain there until you take action.
When a flow message's sending status is updated from manual to live, recipients in the Needs Review tab will not automatically receive the messages. These messages will still require your manual review in order to send.
Additional resources
Learn more about flows: