*New* Schedule by Zapier Integration With Instant Triggers

Categories: App Integrations Zapier Apps
*New* Schedule by Zapier Integration With Instant Triggers

Hello everyone,


We’re excited to announce a new version of our popular Schedule by Zapier integration! As a part of our Zapier Community, you will have early access to the integration before the official launch. We would love to get your feedback and hear your thoughts before making this new version live :) 


You might be wondering what’s new about this integration - well I’m glad you asked! The new Schedule by Zapier integration is nearly identical to the current integration with one key difference - the triggers use webhooks (instead of relying on polling intervals) so they’ll fire within seconds of the specified time.


As you may be aware, the current Schedule by Zapier integration triggers might not run at the exact minute you specify. For instance, if you schedule a Zap to run at 5 PM daily, it will run the first time your Zap polls after 5 PM, which could be anywhere between 5:01 and 5:15 PM depending on your Zap's polling cycle. Thanks to the use of webhooks, this is no longer an issue with the new integration. 


To start creating Zaps with the new Schedule by Zapier integration, you can accept the invite here: https://zapier.com/developer/public-invite/19111/041ad44be08598ef0b66c940990f3a6d/


Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback––we’re always happy to help! Thanks again for being a part of our Zapier Community and looking forward to hearing what you think :) 


Best,

Matt Lukso

Zapier App Engineer


Congrats @Lukso and team for getting this launched! It's a much needed improvement 😃



Most excellent. Thank you for this.



Update: This update is now live so any new Zaps created with the “Schedule by Zapier” will trigger instantly and at the exact time specified going forward :) 

To take advantage of this new functionality for your existing Zaps, all you need to do is switch the app/trigger from "Schedule (Legacy)" to "Schedule by Zapier" then re-activate. Otherwise, your Zaps will continue to trigger based on "polling intervals" which may not always be at the scheduled time.


Schedule by Zapier “Every Day” isn’t working for me at all


I’m sorry to hear that @diegoruizg! Have you opened a ticket with our support team? We’d be happy to investigate further! 


I have a zap that runs every time we get a new lead, but as it’s more of an accounting feature I don’t need it run so often as we have 20-30 leads per day. How can I get it to run/poll just 8 times per day i.e. once every 3 hours? As the zap already exists I’m not sure where I can add in this scheduling for this zap?


I have a zap that runs every time we get a new lead, but as it’s more of an accounting feature I don’t need it run so often as we have 20-30 leads per day. How can I get it to run/poll just 8 times per day i.e. once every 3 hours? As the zap already exists I’m not sure where I can add in this scheduling for this zap?

Great question, @pdog! The Schedule by Zapier app can only be used as a trigger step at the moment so it doesn’t sound like it will be a good fit here (since it seems like the Zap you described already has a trigger step). I suggest looking into our Digest by Zapier app which can aggregate all of your trigger results. That way, you can schedule when the aggregated list of trigger results (i.e. “leads”) should be sent to the subsequent action step(s) on your Zap!

If you need any help getting that setup, please don’t hesitate to reach out and we’ll be happy to help :) 


Re the Digest app, won’t my individual lead triggers still count towards usage? As I have only 750 per month I am hoping to reduce this usage by running only every 3 hours or so. Will this solve the problem?


@pdog Sorry for the delay here! I don’t often check my email and this must have slipped between the cracks. In the future, I recommend reaching out to our support team for the fastest response. Plus, they’re honestly the experts when it comes to answering these types of questions anyway :) 

That being said - Yep! Using the Digest app should reduce your usage depending on how you’ve configured your Zap. The tasks counted towards your total usage should only include the number of steps in your Zap once it actually runs and posts the digest (if/when scheduled) vs each time a new lead is received via the trigger step.

For example, if you have a Zap configured as follows: 

  1. Trigger: New Lead in Facebook Lead Ads
  1. Action: Append Entry and Schedule Digest
  1. Action: Send Direct Message in Slack (where to send the final digest)

Let’s say the Digest Action step (#2) was scheduled to release daily and you received 10 new leads. Anytime a new task is received, the Task History for the Zap will show a status of “Waiting” and shouldn’t count towards your total task usage. When it finally runs to release the digest to post to Slack (#3), only then should the tasks be counted towards your total task usage. That means, there would be a total of 3 tasks vs 10x tasks that count towards your usage.

Hopefully, this makes sense but again - please feel free to reach out if you need any assistance configuring your Zap or have additional questions and we’ll be glad to assist! Apologies again for the delay in my response.