Legacy automations
The original single-action automations, and how they relate to flows.
Before the visual flow editor, Helios automations were a simple form: one trigger, one action. If your workspace has been around a while, you may still see these on the Flows page: they’re listed alongside flows in the same Active / Inactive sections, with a dash in the Conversions column and an Edit action that opens the old form instead of the canvas.
Legacy automations keep working exactly as configured. New automations should be built as flows, which do everything the old form did and much more.
What a legacy automation can do
Triggers (one per automation):
- Incoming message: keyword matching with Contains any or Exact match
- Form submission
- Customer event
- Added to list / Removed from list
- Integration triggers such as Reservation assigned from waitlist
Actions (exactly one):
- Send a message
- Webhook
- Add to list / Remove from list
What flows add
| Capability | Legacy automation | Flow |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple steps in sequence | No | Yes |
| Waits and date-based timing | No | Yes |
| Filters and if/else branches | No | Yes |
| Send email | No | Yes |
| Tags and custom properties | No | Yes |
| Exit triggers and re-entry rules | No | Yes |
| Delivery windows | No | Yes |
| Per-step analytics and revenue | No | Yes |
Migrating
There’s no automatic converter, so recreate the automation as a flow:
- Note the legacy automation’s trigger and action.
- Create flow, add the same trigger and action, and activate it.
- Pause the legacy automation so the two don’t both fire.
Since a legacy automation is one trigger and one action, rebuilding takes about a minute, and once it’s a flow you can extend it with waits, follow-ups, and branching.