A journey responds to an event, date or audience change with a sequence you define. Each contact moves through email, push, waits and decisions at their own pace. Use journeys for welcome messages, onboarding, renewals and re-engagement.
Triggers: how contacts enter
Every journey has one trigger, set under Starts when:
| Trigger | A contact enters when… |
|---|---|
| An event happens | your app, store or payment provider reports a matching event, such as Order Completed |
| Joins a group | they’re added to a group (any group, or one you pick), by import, a form or by hand |
| Submits a form | one of your signup forms accepts their submission |
| Enters a segment | they start matching a segment’s rules. This is checked every 15 minutes. |
| An attribute changes | one of their attributes changes, optionally to a value you choose |
| A date arrives | a date stored in one of their attributes comes round, such as a birthday or renewal date |
Events come from your systems. A developer sends them (see the API quickstart), or you connect a payment provider so orders arrive as Order Completed events.
Entry conditions (event triggers only) narrow which events count. For example, only Order Completed events where channel equals online.
Date triggers
A date trigger reads a date attribute and lets you set:
- Repeat: Every year (birthdays, anniversaries) or Once (a one-off renewal date). Dates without a year only work with Every year.
- Days from the date:
0is on the day,-7is a week before,3is three days after. - Time: the local time to enter, in each contact’s time zone, or the workspace’s for contacts without one.
- 29 February in other years: use 28 February, use 1 March, or skip that year.
Each contact enters at most once a year (Every year) or once ever (Once). To narrow who gets in, add a Contact filter step at the start.
Re-entry and limits
- How often a contact can enrol: Once, or Each time the event happens. With Each time, you can set a wait in days before they can enter again.
- Stop after this many entries: an optional cap on the total number of entries across all contacts. Once reached, nobody else enters.
Exit rules
Add an Exit event to take people out when something happens, for example leaving a “come back” journey once they place an order. You can require the event’s properties to match. A Contact filter step set to check Here and before later steps also removes anyone who stops matching.
Journey statuses
| Status | What happens |
|---|---|
| Draft | Nothing is sent and nobody enters. |
| Active | New contacts enter and move through the steps. |
| Paused | Nobody new enters and further steps wait. Messages already queued may still be delivered. Resume to continue. |
| Ended | Nobody new enters and everyone still in it leaves. An ended journey can’t be edited or reactivated, but you can duplicate it. |
Turning a journey on is always a separate, confirmed action. If the owner has turned on Only admins and owners can send, only they can activate or pause journeys.
Editing a live journey
You can edit an active or paused journey:
- Changes to a message (subject, content or sender) reach everyone who hasn’t reached that step yet, including people already in the journey.
- Changes to the path (waits, branches, splits, or adding and removing steps) apply to people who enter from now on. People already in the journey finish the version they started.
Checks at send time
Every send step checks the contact just before sending: consent, topic, suppression, and that your sender domain or push app is ready. Quiet hours and message limits apply as they do for campaigns. Someone who can’t receive a message skips it and carries on, or takes a fallback path if you set one.
Frequently asked questions
Can a contact go through the same journey twice?
Only if you allow it. Under How often a contact can enrol, choose Each time instead of Once, and optionally set a wait in days before they can enter again.
What happens to people already in a journey when I edit it?
Changes to a message reach everyone who hasn’t reached that step yet, including people already in the journey. Changes to the path apply only to people who enter from now on.
Does pausing a journey stop messages that are already queued?
No. Pausing stops new entries and holds further steps, but messages already queued may still be delivered.
Can I restart an ended journey?
No. An ended journey can’t be edited or reactivated. Duplicate it to start again.