Flow Builder is a visual editor of all messages, actions, and transitions between them. It gives you a bird's-eye view of the whole interaction without having to switch between single messages. If you're new to Manychat, we recommend you first review the Block Types article before diving into Flow Builder.
Basic Builder is another type of Manychat Builder. It works best for simple messages. It shows a linear view which can be a limitation for complex flows. Whereas Flow Builder makes it faster and easier to see your entire sequence at a glance.
Go to Automation on the left column to open up the Automation section. Select Flows from the top row. In the upper right corner, you have the option to select an existing flow or create a new one.
Click +New Flow automatically opens up the template section where you can pick various pre-built flows that serve various purposes. A template will save you time depending on your goal. If you want to start from the beginning, select Start From Scratch.
Each of your flows has its own Starting Step. It’s a separate entity on the Flow Builder canvas which you can link to other Flow steps with the connector.
Starting Step is the Flow’s one single starting point. It means that if earlier you had to use two Growth tools, one Keyword, and a couple of Rules on top of that to launch one flow, you’re now able to see it all as one Starting Step listing all of your triggers. This single-branched view gives you a better understanding of the automation that fires the flow.
Click "Add Trigger" in the Starting Step to open the menu and set up the automation.
Please note!
There are several features responsible for basic interactions with contacts. For Messenger, it is Default Reply, Welcome Message, Conversation Starters, and Main Menu. For Instagram, it is Default Reply, Conversation Starters, and Story Mention Reply. If your flow has one of these features attached to it, you will see this information in Starting Step. This information in the Starting Step is not a Trigger, that is, it cannot be selected by clicking the "+Add Trigger" button.
Switch back to other steps available for building your flow: Send Message, Actions, Start Flow, Smart Delay, Condition, Randomizer, Send SMS, and Send Email.
An arrow automatically connects the Starting Step block to the other steps. Select your channel (Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.)
Send Message step allows you to create any sort of message you might want to send and add various blocks to it such as Text, Video, or Gallery, for example. Review Block Types and Quick Reply Buttons to learn more about the options of the Send Message block.
For more information about Content Type, check the Content Type article.
Actions step includes any sort of action you might want the bot to perform such as tagging contacts, subscribing them to a Sequence, notifying an Admin, opening a conversation, etc. Each Actions step can have multiple actions. Review Button Types and Actions here.
Start Flow is a step that allows you to send your subscribed contacts to a particular flow without creating a copy of this flow.
For more information about Content Type, check the Content Type article.
Actions step includes any sort of action you might want the bot to perform such as tagging contacts, subscribing them to a Sequence, notifying an Admin, opening a conversation. Each Actions step can have multiple actions. Review Button Types and Actions here.
Start Flow is a step that allows you to send your subscribed contacts to a particular flow without creating a copy of this flow.
Smart Delay is a step that will help you to postpone the follow-up message or action.
Condition Block helps send your subscribed contacts down different paths depending on specific requirements. Choose a condition and set different outcomes for customers who match or don't match these conditions.
Randomizer allows you to randomly send the subscribed contacts along different paths. For example, you can test your Welcome Message to find a new variation that increases conversions or test different call-to-actions inside a Growth Tool's Opt-In Message. You can create up to 6 variations and control the split percentages.
SMS step can send SMS messages to contacts. A contact would first need to submit their phone number and agree to get SMS messages from you in order to receive them.
Email step allows sending emails via non-Messenger channels. A contact would need to submit their email and confirm that they want to receive emails from you. Contact will receive emails once confirmed.
These are the basic steps in using different blocks to create your flows. Here are the other features worth reviewing as well.
If you place the cursor on any of the message blocks or connectors between these messages, you will see these two icons:
You can delete the block by clicking the red bin icon. Click the other icon to duplicate this step.
Next, look at the right side of the Flow Builder:
1 - This button toggles between Flow Builder and Basic Builder mode.
2 - The instrument bar contains triggers and additional blocks: Starting Step Triggers, Content blocks, Logic blocks, and an option to leave a Comment inside the Flow.
Add Trigger button allows you to set up a trigger or several triggers that will fire your Flow to your audience.
Content blocks allow you to choose the type of data and channel.
Logic blocks help to regulate who the Flow is sent to and what actions and delays it includes.
Extras block contains the Comment feature that allows you to leave notes and comments in the Flow which will help you to communicate and share your input with other Admins in the Flow. Your customers won't receive these notes in their messages. These comments only appear in Manychat.
3 - Here you can check whether your Flow is compliant with the new Messenger policy changes starting March 4, 2020. Flow Checker will show you messages in the Flow that might not be sent to your subscribed contacts beyond the 24-hour messaging window.
4 - Auto Arrange Steps option re-arranges all the steps into a cleaner layout.
5 - This option allows you to scale your Flow.
Almost any action doing inside Flow Builder you are able to undo and redo using hotkeys or appropriate buttons. Triggers are exceptions. You are able to undo or redo about 20 steps.
Frequently Asked Questions:
How many steps can a single Flow have?
Subscribed contacts are limited in receiving more than 30 blocks without a pause. It prevents you from sending an infinite number of messages that the automation will eventually pause.
As a result, any block that does not contain a button (regular or Quick Reply), or a Smart Delay block, is considered a block without a pause.
Can I view analytics in a Flow view?
Yes. It's the best way to view your stats. See the entire interaction from start to finish, where people dropped off, and which steps you need to work on.
Additionally, you can check the stats by a specific trigger inside the Flow. Just choose the trigger and the stats of the associated nodes. By default, Flow stats are shown aggregated for all triggers.
Can I switch back to Basic Builder?
Yes. Click the "Go to Basic Builder" button that is in the upper-right corner of the page while you're in editing mode.de.
Tips & Tricks:
1. Create steps right on the canvas by double-clicking on the canvas and selecting a step type.
2. Create connections right on the canvas by clicking on the connection dot and then selecting a step.
3. Select multiple steps at once by holding the Shift key and clicking on the steps.
4. Select multiple steps with a frame if you hold down the Shift key and start dragging on the canvas.
5. Copy and paste steps between different bots, but some of the actions will be disabled because the target bot doesn’t have these Tags, Sequences, etc.
6. Copy and paste steps using Cmd+C/Ctrl+C and Cmd+V/Ctrl+V.
7. Copy and paste steps between different Flows.
8. Alt–Drag a step to create a copy.
9. Undo and redo your actions using Cmd+Z/Ctrl+Z and Cmd+Shift+Z/Ctrl+Shift+Z.
10. Change the step following the Starting Step. Clicking the dark dot its connector is coming from and drag it to the next first step.
For example, you can start a Flow with the Actions step - just drag the connector to the Actions step. This allows you to perform actions even before the first message is sent. It's useful for tagging or subscribing contacts to Sequences before the Opt-In message gets sent.
Remember to save changes by clicking the Publish button in the upper right corner.
The Flow Builder helps you create your flow in a series of steps that connect messages, actions, and other building blocks in one map.