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Wait for email event node

Tejaswini Raghupathi
Tejaswini Raghupathi
  • Updated

The Wait for Email Event node waits for a specific email event to occur before the flow proceeds, with support for configurable timeout windows and conditional outcomes.

Please note that the events reported by this node are received from the recipient's mail server and may not always reflect a direct action by the recipient. Some events, such as Opened and Clicked, can be automatically generated by mail servers or anti-spam filters. Our system reports the events we receive, but you should exercise caution when interpreting them.
 

Before you begin

  • The Wait for Email Event node is designed to be used with Sender Profiles. It is not compatible with the “Outbound email (legacy)” node.
  • The Wait for Email Event node is available for both our default and BYO SES sender profiles.

Adding the node to your flow

  1. Build your flow and add an Outbound email node. If you haven't done this yet, see Outbound email node for guidance.
  2. From the node panel, search for and drag the Wait for Email Event onto the Sent path of your Outbound email node.
  3. The node will appear on the canvas and its settings panel will open automatically.

Configuring the node

When the settings panel opens, you will see the Select node section with two dropdowns — Node and Event — and two outcome paths below them. The node will display a This node has some errors warning until both fields are completed.

Select node

Node — select the Outbound email node you want to monitor from the dropdown.

If your flow contains more than one Outbound email node, you can rename each one on the canvas before configuring this node. This makes it easier to identify the correct email node from the dropdown.

Event — select the email event you want to wait for. The available events are:

  • Clicked — we received an event from the recipient's mail server indicating that a link in the email was clicked.
  • Delivered — we received an event from the recipient's mail server indicating that the email was delivered.
  • Hard bounce — we received an event from the recipient's mail server indicating that the email could not be delivered.
  • Opened — we received an event from the recipient's mail server indicating that the email was opened.
  • Spam — we received an event from the recipient's mail server indicating that the email was marked as spam.

Outcomes

The Wait for Email Event node sends recipients down different flow paths based on whether the selected event is received within the timeout window.

Before you select an event, the node displays two default paths: Received and Not received. After you select an event, these paths update to match your selection.

 

Event Received path Not received path
Clicked If a clicked event is received within the timeout window, the experience continues on the Clicked path. If no clicked event is received within the timeout window, the experience continues on the Not clicked path.
Delivered If a delivered event is received within the timeout window, the experience continues on the Delivered path. If no delivered event is received within the timeout window, the experience continues on the Not delivered path.
Hard bounce If a hard bounce event is received within the timeout window, the experience continues on the Hard bounce path. If no hard bounce event is received within the timeout window, the experience continues on the No hard bounce path.
Opened If an opened event is received within the timeout window, the experience continues on the Opened path. If no opened event is received within the timeout window, the experience continues on the Not opened path.
Spam If a spam event is received within the timeout window, the experience continues on the Spam path. If no spam event is received within the timeout window, the experience continues on the Not spam path.
You can edit the timeout duration inline on the not received path. Click the pencil icon next to the duration to set how long the flow should wait.

After selecting your node and event and setting your timeout, click Save.

 

The flow progresses on the first event received. If the same event occurs multiple times — for example, if a recipient clicks a link more than once — the flow will have already moved on after the first click. Subsequent events of the same type have no effect on the flow.
Any event that arrives after the timeout window has elapsed will still appear in recent activity, but it will have no effect on the flow.

 

Waiting for multiple events

Each Wait for Email Event node listens for one event. If you want your flow to respond to multiple event types, add a separate Wait for Email Event node for each one.

Order matters. When multiple Wait for Email Event nodes are chained together, they are evaluated in sequence — one at a time. An event later in the flow does not cause the experience to skip an earlier node that is still waiting. For example, if your flow has a "Wait for Opened" node followed by a "Wait for Failed" node, and the email fails within seconds of being sent, the flow will still wait at the Opened node until its timeout elapses before moving on to the Failed node.

 

⚠️ If you are building a failure recovery flow — for example, sending an SMS if an email isn't delivered — always place the failure-related Wait for Email Event node first in your sequence. Placing it later means the recipient's fallback experience is delayed by each timeout that comes before it, which could significantly impact their experience.

 

Merge field explorer

The following merge fields are available from the Wait for Email Event node. Use these to personalise the experience based on how the event was resolved.

 

Merge field name Description Possible outputs Definition and examples
outcome The event receipt status (string) success The selected event was received within the timeout window. The experience will continue on the event path, for example Clicked or Delivered.
    failure The selected event was not received within the timeout window. The experience will continue on the not received path, for example Not clicked or Not delivered.
outcomeReason The reason for the event receipt status (string)

 

fulfilled

 

 The selected event was received within the timeout window.
   

 

wait-for-event-expired

 

 The timeout window elapsed without the selected event being received.