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In Automations, an automation goes live in three moves: you build it, you test it, and you publish it. TextYess saves your changes while you build. Real customers get messages only when the automation is live, with the status Active. This page explains testing, publishing, Meta approval, updates, how to stop or delete an automation, and how to follow each run.

Save an automation: changes save automatically

TextYess saves your changes to an automation automatically while you build. The top of the automation shows Saving… while it saves. If a save fails, it shows Unsaved changes. Click it to try again. Saving never sends a message to a customer. When a step is not complete, the top of the page shows a warning like “1 step needs attention”. Click it to go to the step. You cannot test or publish until you fix it.

Test an automation with Sandbox: no messages sent

In Automations, open the automation and click Test. In Test your flow, choose Sandbox. It is safe to run: no messages are sent. To change the example data of the trigger, click Edit Test Input. Click Run sandbox. The canvas shows each step as it runs. When a step waits for a button, select a button to act as the customer. In a test, delays are 60 seconds at most and time-of-day rules are skipped. Test runs are hidden in the Runs tab unless you turn on Show test executions.

Send a live test of an automation to your phone

In Automations, open the automation, click Test and choose Live test to a recipient. Real messages are delivered. In Where should we send the preview?, enter your WhatsApp number with no spaces or special characters, then click Send live test. A live WhatsApp test runs the published version, so the automation must be Active with approved messages. For email steps, enter the address in Where should we deliver the emails?. A live test is a real message: it uses message credits and counts toward the frequency cap.

Publish an automation

In Automations, open the automation and click Publish at the top right. If the automation has Send Message steps, the window Submit templates for review? opens. Click Publish & submit templates. TextYess sends the messages to Meta. The automation shows Pending Approval until Meta approves all of them. Then it becomes Active by itself. An automation without Send Message steps, for example with only AI Message, email or tag steps, becomes Active at once. Publish is not available while a step needs attention or a file is uploading.

What Pending Approval (in review) means for an automation

Pending Approval in the Automations list, or Awaiting review at the top of an automation, means that Meta is reviewing the WhatsApp messages of the automation. A new automation starts for no one until Meta approves all its messages. When Meta answers, TextYess turns the automation on by itself. To get the latest status from Meta, click Sync Templates on the Automations page. Each Send Message step shows “Template awaiting WhatsApp approval”, “Template approved by WhatsApp” or “Template rejected by WhatsApp”. If you published changes to a live automation, the live version keeps running while the new version waits.

When Meta rejects an automation message

If Meta rejects a message, the Send Message step shows “Template rejected by WhatsApp” and the reason. For a new automation, the status changes to Inactive and it sends nothing. For a live automation, the old version keeps running and the new version does not go live. To fix it, change the message, for example remove offers from a Utility message, then publish again. To refresh the status from Meta, click Sync Templates on the Automations page.

Update a live automation

When you change a live automation, the top right shows Update with the number of changes. Click Update to publish them. If the automation has Send Message steps, the window Re-submit templates? opens. Click Re-submit templates. The live version keeps running until Meta approves the new messages. Then TextYess switches to the new version. Runs that already started keep the version they started with. To remove your changes, open the menu next to Update and click Discard edits.

Unpublish an automation to stop it

To stop an automation, unpublish it. There is no on and off switch. In Automations, open the menu of the automation in the list and click Unpublish. You can also open the automation and click Unpublish. The automation goes offline, starts no new runs, and becomes an editable draft. Runs that already started continue and can still send messages. To stop them too, select Cancel them in the window. The button then shows Unpublish & cancel. To turn the automation on again, click Publish. Its WhatsApp messages go to Meta for review again.

Archive an automation to delete it

There is no delete button. To remove an automation for good, archive it. In Automations, open the menu of the automation in the list and click Archive. You can also open the automation and click Archive flow in its menu. Then click Archive to confirm. Archiving stops all future triggers, cancels the runs in progress, and moves the automation to the Archived tab. You cannot undo it. To stop an automation for a while, use Unpublish instead.

Run an automation for one real contact

To start a live automation for one customer now, open the automation in Automations and open its menu. Click Run for a real contact. Enter the phone number with no spaces or special characters, for example 393331234567. Click Run flow. Real messages are sent. This option shows only when the automation is Active.

See every run of an automation in the Runs tab

In Automations, open the automation and click the Runs tab. Each row is one contact who started the automation, with Status (Running, Completed, Failed or Cancelled), Delivery outcome, Contact, Steps, Last Step, Started and Completed. Search by contact, phone or ID, and filter by status, last step, date, version or delivery outcome. Click a row to see each step of that run. To stop a run that is in progress, open its menu and click Cancel execution.

Version history of an automation

Each time you publish an automation, TextYess saves a new version: v1, v2 and so on. The top of a live automation shows Live and the version number. In Automations, open the automation, click the Runs tab, then open Versions. Click Preview to see an older version. You cannot restore an older version. To go back, change the automation and publish it again.