Schedules and triggers

There are two ways an automation starts.

On a schedule

Most automations run on a set schedule, like every morning at 7, every weekday evening, or the first of the month. The schedule comes with the automation, so there’s nothing to pick during setup.

Under Yours, the line beneath an automation’s name shows its schedule, for example “Every day at 7:00 AM” or “Every Friday at 4:00 PM”.

When something happens

Some automations start as soon as something happens in a connected app, instead of waiting for their next scheduled time. You’ll see labels like:

• When mail arrives
• When you send mail
• When files are added
• When a charge fails
• When someone subscribes
• When someone cancels
• When recordings finish

These normally run within a few minutes of the event, and at most once every fifteen minutes.

Not every app supports this. Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Notion, Todoist, Zoom, and Stripe automations can react to events as they happen. Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram, Discord, Reddit, YouTube, Calendly, Airtable, Canva, Dropbox, and Trello automations run on their schedule only.

A busy day doesn’t mean more messages

An automation that reacts to events still sends one summary, not one message per event. Forty emails arriving at once gives you one digest, not forty.

Both at the same time

An automation that reacts to events also keeps a slower schedule as a backup, so nothing is missed.

Tap an automation under Yours to see both. Trigger is what wakes it up. Also checks is the backup schedule.

If an app gets disconnected

The automation doesn’t stop. It falls back to its schedule and keeps running, just less promptly. The next time it runs, Brea messages you asking you to reconnect the app.

Reconnect it on the Integrations page and it goes back to running as soon as things happen.