Flow steps: what each step does
Last updated: 13 October 2026 · 6 min read
A flow is built from steps. To add a step, click “+ Step” in the top left corner of the canvas, or drop a line on empty space. The menu has five groups: Message, Question, Logic, Action, Hand over. When you click a step, its settings open on the right. Some steps and settings exist only in mobile app (App SDK) flows, and this article says which.
Steps
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1
The Message group
- “Message”: sends text, image, card and carousel blocks one after another. Text can carry buttons.
- “Link card”: a title, description, image and buttons. A link button opens in a new tab, and a step button moves the flow on. This is how a “back to the main menu” button is built.
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2
The Question group
- “Menu”: a question and buttons. The visitor taps a button or types its text, and the flow follows that button's branch.
- “Question”: saves what the visitor writes under the name in the “Save answer as” field. You can then use this name in conditions and texts as {{name}}.
- “Form”: several fields (Text, Email, Phone, Number, Date). A field can be “Required”, and “Validation (regex)” checks its format.
- “Language”: the visitor picks a language, and each language has its own branch.
- “Ask for a rating”: asks the customer to rate the conversation, and the answer is saved to the conversation as a rating.
In the mobile app, “Menu”, “Language” and a “Message” with buttons have a “Customer can't type” switch. See “Customer can't type: buttons and the Turn off typing step”.
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3
The Logic group
- “Condition”: picks a branch based on a saved answer (is, is not, contains, has a value, is empty). If no rule matches, the “Otherwise” outlet runs. In a mobile app flow, a rule can also check a “Contact attribute”, a “Conversation attribute”, a “Label” (on the conversation or not), the “Platform”, “Opened from” and an “App event”.
- “Business hours”: “Open hours” and “Outside hours” outlets. The hours come from the channel's “Business Hours” tab. If business hours are not turned on, the “Open hours” outlet always runs.
- “Wait”: waits the given number of seconds and continues from “When the time is up”. In the mobile app, “Stop waiting” offers “If the operator writes” and “If the customer writes”. Each adds its own outlet on the card: “The operator wrote”, “The customer wrote”. If nothing is connected to an outlet, the flow stops there.
- “Go to step”: moves the flow to another step of this flow.
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4
The Action group
The visitor does not see these: “Add label”, “Private note”, “Set priority”, “Save to contact” (writes the answer to a contact field), “Assign to team”. “Turn off typing” closes the text box in the mobile app. A “Sticky note” is only a note for you on the canvas.
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5
The Hand over group
- “Hand to agent”: the bot stops, and the conversation opens and waits for an agent.
- “Hand to AI agent”: gives the conversation to the Clomni AI assistant, which answers from its knowledge base.
- “Start another flow”: the conversation goes on in another flow of this inbox. Mobile app only. See “Start another flow, and reusable flows”.
- “Close conversation”: resolves the conversation. If the customer writes later, the conversation reopens.
“Ask for a rating”, “Hand to AI agent” and “Close conversation” have a “Message” field: this text goes to the customer when the step runs. Steps that end the conversation show an “End” badge on their card.
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6
Text limit and formatting
The counter under the text field shows the channel's limit: 4000 characters in the mobile app and the web chat, 1000 bytes on Instagram, 2000 bytes on Messenger. In the mobile app a button's name can be up to 120 characters, with 10 buttons on one step. When a text goes over the limit, the counter says what will happen.
“Bold” makes the selected word bold. “Link” opens the “Website, email or phone” field: a website opens with https, an email as mailto and a phone as a tel link. Any other address is refused.