Flow templates

A template is a complete flow that someone has already thought through for you: the event that starts it, the wait before the message, the text, who it can reach, how often the same contact can go through it and, where it makes sense, the purchase that stops it. Instead of a fixed catalogue, the gallery starts from the events your project actually receives: it offers the templates those events can start, tells you on every card whether the flow would run today, and recommends the best fits you haven't used yet.

Using a template is safe to try. It creates a new flow with a draft that opens in the editor; nothing is published, nobody enters and no message is sent until you review it, publish it and its entry is on. From that point it is an ordinary flow: you can change any step, add new ones or delete what you don't need, as described in Building a flow.

Where to find templates

The gallery is a panel titled Start from a template, with the subtitle Ready-made flows for the events your project receives. Using one only creates a draft. You reach it from several places in Marketing › Flows:

• The Templates button at the top of the flows list, next to New flow. On small screens it shows only its icon. It appears when your project has at least one template to offer.
• New flow › From a template. When you create a flow, the How do you want to start? dialog offers Blank flow and From a template. The template option carries a badge, such as 2 for you, that counts the templates marked Works now. If your project has no templates to offer, the option is not there and New flow goes straight to naming a blank flow.
• The empty list. While your project has no flows, the gallery appears directly on the page, above the No flows yet message.
• The Flows for the events you receive strip, above a list that already has flows. It shows up to three templates whose event your project receives and that you haven't used yet, each with Use template and an eye button, Preview flow, that opens the template's diagram without creating anything. View all opens the full gallery. While it is visible it takes the place of the Last 30 days summary. You can close it with its close button; it stays hidden for that project in that browser only. It isn't shown on narrow screens.

The project home suggests the same templates the gallery marks Recommended, each as a suggestion of its own that opens the gallery on that template; see Project status.

You need permission to edit automations to see the Templates button and to use a template.

Find the right template

The gallery lists the templates that make sense for your project: those whose starting event your project receives or a connected source can send, and those suited to your type of business. Templates that would work today come first, then those that could work once their event arrives, then the rest; within each group, the ones you haven't used come before the ones you have.

To narrow the list:

• Search templates looks in the title, the description, the starting event and the source names.
• Data source (All data sources by default) keeps the templates related to one of your own sources: those that sent a template's event, including your API source, and your connected integrations.
• Category filters by theme (Welcome, Ecommerce, Abandoned checkout, Orders, Shipping, Win-back), with the number of templates in each.
• Hide used removes the templates you have already used.
• Clear filters, the cross that appears once a filter is on, resets them all. The send mode isn't a filter and stays as it is.
• Send mode appears only when your project has an active RCS sender; see RCS send mode.

Above the cards, a row of event chips, Events you received in the last N days, lists the starting events your project has received, most frequent first, with how many arrived. The number of days is your plan's window and the panel shows it. Select one or more chips to keep only the templates that can start on those events.

If the filters leave nothing, the gallery says No template matches these filters and offers View all templates. If your project has no templates at all, it says No templates for this project yet. They appear as your data sources send events.

Will it run? The readiness badge

A flow only starts when its event arrives, so every card tells you how that event is doing in your project. The badge sits next to a short line with the detail.

Badge	What it means	Detail on the card
Works now	The event that starts the template has arrived recently from one of your sources. A flow made from it would start running as soon as you publish it.	How many arrived in the plan's window and when the last one came in.
No data yet	One of your connected integrations can send that event, but none has arrived so far.	[source] can send [event], but none has arrived yet.
Not arriving lately	The event arrived at some point in the window, but not recently. Check that the source is still connected and sending.	The last [event] arrived on [date].
Won't trigger	None of your connected sources sends the event, so the flow would never start, however good its messages are. The first step is to connect a source that sends it.	No connected data source sends [events], so it would never start.

Only connected integrations declare in advance which events they can send. If your events come through the API, a template can show Won't trigger until the first event of that type arrives, and then it moves straight to Works now.

A template whose starting event does arrive can still show No data yet when the source it would listen to doesn't send the event that stops it, such as the orders that end Abandoned checkout. Until that event comes from the same source, the template isn't marked Recommended.

Recommended and Already used

• Recommended marks up to three templates: the best fits among those whose event your project already receives and that you haven't used yet. The fit weighs the events you receive above anything else, and also your type of business, the event you count as a sale and the flows you already have.
• Already used means a flow created from that template exists, whether it is published, paused or still a draft. An archived flow doesn't count, so after you archive one the template can be recommended again.

What a card shows

Besides the title, the description and the badges, each card summarises what the flow does:

• The steps, in order: a fixed wait shows its length, a Smart delay shows as Best time or Best time after its minimum wait, and each message shows its channel as a badge (SMS, or an RCS badge next to the SMS one in RCS mode). If a template branches, the line stops at the split with Splits into and the number of branches, and adds the total number of messages it can send and the longest a contact can stay in it.
• Stops on, followed by the events that end the flow early, such as an order.
• The sources that sent its event, as icons. Hovering one tells you how many it sent and which source the new flow will listen to: The flow will listen only to that source, or The flow will listen to any data source for events Instasent records itself, such as a new contact.

When several of your sources send the same event, the template picks the one best placed to send it (for orders, the shop that owns them) and the flow listens only to that one. That way, the same order relayed by a second tool doesn't start the flow twice. You can change the source later in the trigger; see The trigger: who enters and when.

The templates

The catalogue has five templates today, and it grows over time. The gallery only shows the ones that fit your project, so you may see fewer.

Template	Starts on	What it does	Stops on (goal)	Who can enter again	Consent policy
Abandoned checkout	Checkout started	Reminds shoppers who started a checkout and didn't buy, with the link to finish it, at their best moment between 30 minutes and 8 hours later.	Order created, used as the flow's goal	At least 1 day between entries	No opt-out
Welcome new contacts	Customer created / updated, new contacts only	Greets each new contact at their best moment within the first hours.	—	Once per contact	No opt-out
Thank you for your order	Order created	Thanks the customer right after the order, with its number.	—	Default limits	Basic
Ask for a review	Order delivered, or Order shipped when only shipments reach your project	Asks for the customer's opinion at their best moment between 2 and 5 days later.	—	Default limits	No opt-out
Win back customers	Order created	Writes to the customer 30 days after their last order; a new order restarts the count.	Order created, used as the flow's goal	Default limits	No opt-out

The Consent policy column is the policy each message is sent under. The thank-you message uses Basic because it is an order confirmation, and the four marketing messages use No opt-out. If you turn the thank-you message into a promotion, change its policy too. Who each policy reaches is explained in Compliance policies, and how it works on a flow message in Sending messages.

What every template has in common

• Only contacts with a mobile phone number can enter. The trigger's audience is limited to them, so nobody enters a flow that could never message them.
• One message, behind a Smart delay (except the thank-you, which sends right away). The Smart delay waits for each contact's best moment inside its window and has Follow marketing time-of-day laws on. If no allowed moment fits inside the window, the contact leaves the wait through Unable to wait, which the template leaves empty, so that contact finishes the flow without the message. How each wait works is in Waits.
• Stop the run if the message can't be sent is on, so a contact whose message can't go out doesn't carry on through the flow.
• One run at a time per contact. Simultaneous runs per contact is set to 1. If the starting event arrives again while the contact is still inside, that second entry is rejected and shows up in the flow's Didn't enter list; see Monitoring a flow.
• Default entry limits unless the table says otherwise: no cap on how many times a contact can enter, with at least 5 minutes between two entries of the same contact. These settings are explained in The trigger: who enters and when.
• Your project's default sender is pre-selected on every message, and the texts are in your project's language (see Use a template).

Templates without an exit event have no goal, so their analytics show no goal rate. If a sale is what success means for you (a welcome that leads to a first order, for example), add it in Goal & exit; see Goals and exits.

Each template in detail

Use a template

1. 1

   Pick the card

   Open the gallery and find the template, with the filters or the event chips if you need them. The card you pick shows the flow's diagram below it; in the strip above the list, the eye button shows it.

2. 2

   Click Use template

   A new flow is created, named after the template in the panel's language (for example Abandoned checkout). Its draft holds the template's trigger, steps, limits and, when the template has them, exit and goal. The template now shows Already used.

3. 3

   Review the draft in the editor

   The editor opens on the new draft. Nothing is published and the flow's entry is off, so no contact enters yet. You can rename the flow (the name is sent with the links in its messages; see Managing flows) and change anything on the canvas.

4. 4

   Test and publish

   Run a test with one contact, then publish to everyone or to a small group first. Both are explained in Testing, publishing and versions. The first publish also turns the flow's entry on.

What to check before publishing

• The sender of each message. Every message step comes with your project's default SMS sender already selected (in RCS mode, the RCS level also gets one of your active RCS senders). Make sure it is the one you want for this flow. If your project has no active sender for that channel, the message is left without one and the editor marks it as needing attention.
• The texts. They are a starting point written for any business; adapt them to your tone and add an offer if you want one. The message editor is described in Sending messages.
• The source of the trigger and of the exit. They point to the source the template picked; change it if your events should come from another one.
• The waits and limits, if your customers' rhythm is different: a longer window for a review, a different number of days for a win-back.

RCS send mode

Templates are written as SMS. When your project has an active RCS sender, the gallery adds the Send mode switch with two options, shown as channel badges: SMS, and RCS next to SMS, whose tooltip reads RCS, with SMS when RCS can't reach the contact. In RCS mode, every message of the template is prepared as a plain-text RCS message, with the same text as its SMS fallback and the same consent policy on both; the cards show the RCS badge next to the SMS one. The template doesn't add rich content such as images or buttons.

The switch starts on SMS: RCS is never chosen for you. Without an active RCS sender, the switch doesn't appear and templates use SMS only. How the fallback decides between the two channels is explained in SMS fallback.

Message language

The template's messages are written in your project's language: in Spanish for a Spanish-language project, and in English for any other. The flow's name, like the gallery itself, follows the language of the panel.

If your plan includes messages in several languages, each message also carries the other language (English or Spanish) as a translation, and each contact receives the version in their own language; everyone else receives the main one. Translations are added in the message editor, one version per language; see Sending messages.

Example: a second reminder for Abandoned checkout

The Abandoned checkout template sends one reminder. A common next step is to send a second one, with a discount, only to those who didn't react to the first:

1. Create the flow from Abandoned checkout and open its draft.
2. On the Wait complete lane of the Smart delay, use the + right below the reminder (Add a step here) and add Wait for activity. Use the + inside that lane, not the one below where the lanes rejoin: a step placed there would also reach the contacts who went through Unable to wait. Where a new step lands is explained in Building a flow.
3. The new wait comes with a fallback branch, Any link click, and the No interaction output. Set How long to wait to 1 day. Leave Any link click empty: contacts who order leave the flow through its Order created exit (see below).
4. Under No interaction, add Send SMS with a text such as Your cart is still waiting: 10% off with code BACK10, and the checkout link. In Advanced, set the consent policy to No opt-out, like the first reminder: a message step you add yourself starts with your project's default policy, which is usually Basic.
5. Save, run a test with one contact and publish.

The Order created exit keeps working across the whole flow: a contact who orders while the new wait is running leaves at that moment, doesn't receive the discount, and the order counts as the flow's goal because the first reminder was already sent. One who orders before the first reminder leaves without it and without a goal; see Goals and exits. The wait steps and their branches are explained in Waits.

Billing

Using a template costs nothing: it only creates a draft. Once published, each message is billed according to the channel it goes out on, like any other send. In RCS mode, a message delivered by RCS is billed as RCS, and when the SMS fallback runs, the SMS conditions apply, as explained in SMS fallback. Test runs send real messages and are billed too; see Testing, publishing and versions.

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