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Feature request: add time delay to automations

Topic Labels: Automations
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Bob_Ziroll
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

I’d love it if I could add a delay as an action step, similar to how you can do it in Zapier.

Currently, I want to be able to trigger an automation when a formula field calculates to a specific value (a value that figures out if a combo of other values is a valid combo). However, when someone is editing the record, this formula field jumps back and forth between a “valid” and “invalid” state while they’re still editing. This triggers the automation saying the formula field is marking the record as “invalid” even though the person editing the field isn’t done editing yet.

Ideas for implementation:

  • A delay step that can wait n minutes after a trigger has occured before any further action steps are taken. In an ideal world, there might even be an easy way to check the record that triggered the automation to see if it’s still meeting the triggering criteria. (Like a Zapier “filter” step)
  • A delay that waits n minutes after a record was last modified to then trigger the automation if the record still meets the trigger qualifications.
6 Replies 6
Michael_Andrew
8 - Airtable Astronomer
8 - Airtable Astronomer

You can use this workaround

But of course a native delay step would be great and comparable to Zapier offering.

Tuur
10 - Mercury
10 - Mercury

I want to add that delaying minutes is possible with trickery, but I’d like the delay to be smaller.

E.g. post-leave or post-edit field or maybe a x seconds interval (defined in trigger).

WF_Analyst
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Completely agree for the same reasons Bob described–I’d like to be able to delay an action step until someone is actually done modifying the record.

sic
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

+1 this good feature. Sending email accidently is really annoying

Michael_McAdam
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Definitely keen on this feature too. My use case would like to have an email send at a specific time, i.e, the user enters 8:00pm in one of the fields and the automation will wait until 8:00pm to send the email.

Jonathan_Elliot
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

+1 I wanted to move this back up to the top of suggestions. Very important function. Thanks Jonathan