Wait activity wait-activity

You can use a Wait activity to define a duration before executing the next activity. The maximum wait duration is 90 days.

You can set two types of Wait activity:

  • A wait based on a relative duration. Learn more
  • A custom date, using functions to calculate it. Learn more

Recommendations wait-recommendations

Multiple Wait activities multiple-wait-activities

When using multiple Wait activities in a journey, be aware that the global timeout for journeys is 91 days, meaning that profiles are always drop out of the journey maximum 91 days after they entered it. Learn more in this page.

An individual can enter a Wait activity only if they have enough time left in the journey to complete the wait duration before the 91 days journey timeout.

Wait and re-entrance wait-re-entrance

A best practice to not use Wait activities to block re-entrance. Instead, use the Allow re-entrance option at the journey properties level. Learn more in this page.

Wait and test mode wait-test-modd

In test mode, the Wait time in test parameter allows you to define the time that each Wait activity will last. The default time is 10 seconds. This will ensure that you get the test results quickly. Learn more in this page.

Configuration wait-configuration

Duration wait duration

Select the Duration type to set the relative duration of the wait before the execution of the next activity. The maximum duration is 90 days.

Define the wait duration

Custom wait custom

Select the Custom type to define a custom date, using an advanced expression based on a field coming from an event or a custom action response. You cannot define a relative duration directly, for example, 7 days, but you can use functions to calculate it if needed (eg: 2 days after purchase).

Define a custom wait with an expression

The expression in the editor should provide a dateTimeOnly format. Refer to this page. For more information on dateTimeOnly format, refer to this page.

Best practice is to use custom dates that are specific to your profiles, and avoid using the same date for all. For example, do not define toDateTimeOnly('2024-01-01T01:11:00Z') but rather toDateTimeOnly(@event{Event.productDeliveryDate}) which is specific to each profile. Be aware that using fixed dates can cause issues on your journey execution.

NOTE
You can leverage a dateTimeOnly expression or use a function to convert to a dateTimeOnly. For example: toDateTimeOnly(@event{Event.offerOpened.activity.endTime}), the field in the event being of the form 2023-08-12T09:46:06Z.
The time zone is expected in the properties of your journey. As a result, from the user interface, it is not possible to directly point at a full ISO-8601 timestamp mixing time and time zone offset like 2023-08-12T09:46:06.982-05. Learn more.

To validate that the wait activity works as expected, you can use step events. Learn more.

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