You can create a cross-channel journey using messages, such as emails and guides, across multiple apps, to encourage users to take key actions in your product, such as viewing a Page or selecting a Feature. The goal of these actions might be to onboard new users, drive adoption, or reduce churn.
With cross-app journeys, messages aren't restricted to the journey app, and you can include messages across multiple apps in a single journey. This makes it easier to support complex workflows and helps you maintain consistent communication across the tools your users rely on.
When to use a cross-app journey
- A business process involves multiple apps, such as entering information in different payroll systems. Here, you may want to start a guide in one app and direct the user to complete an action in another app.
- You want to engage and communicate with users who work across different apps. Cross-app journeys allow you to connect with users where they're active and receptive.
Create a journey
To create a new journey, go to Orchestrate > Journeys and:
- Select Create journey in the top-right corner of the Journeys page.
- Select a journey template to quickly set up a new journey based on your use case. Choose from the following journey templates:
- Welcome new users: Make a great first impression and help new users get to value fast.
- Announce new feature: Create buzz and drive adoption for your latest release.
- Re-engage inactive users: Connect with users at the first sign of inactivity to reduce the risk of churn.
- Alternatively, choose Start from scratch to begin with a blank slate and set up your own journey.
- For any of the templates above, select Preview to see a visual overview of the full journey steps.
- Once you've decided on your template, select Select template.
- Select the app where you want your journey to run.
- In the Journey name field, enter a name for the journey.
- Select Create. The journey’s Settings page displays.
- Add a description for the journey, if required, and set the journey settings.
Note: A journey supports a maximum of 20 messages and 4 consecutive conditional splits.
For more information, see Add messages to your journey.
Journey settings
On the journey’s Settings page, you can set a journey goal, define the segment you want to target, and schedule a start date and time, as well as an expiration date and time.
Set a journey goal
A journey goal measures the effectiveness of your journey by tracking how many visitors take a specific action after engaging with its messages. When a visitor achieves the goal, they automatically exit the journey and are marked as a goal conversion in your journey results. Currently, each journey supports one goal.
Note: With cross-app journeys, the journey goal is limited to the application assigned to the journey itself and can’t be changed after creation.
To set a goal:
- In the Journey goal tile, select + Set goal.
- In the Journey goal form, select the journey goal type from the dropdown list:
- View a Page
- Click a Feature
- Generate a Track Event
- Select Save.
Tip: Track Events can be used to define goals based on custom user actions that aren't automatically captured—such as backend events, API calls, or interactions defined in your install script. This provides flexibility to track a broader range of behaviors.
When to set a goal
For most journeys, we strongly recommend setting a goal. A goal ensures the journey ends when a key action is completed, helping prevent over-messaging and enabling you to track outcomes effectively. While segmentation can help limit message eligibility, it doesn’t provide the same level of control or insight as a defined goal.
When skipping a goal may make sense
You can choose not to set a journey goal. In this case, all eligible visitors will proceed through every step in the journey unless they leave the segment. This may be useful for:
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Informational campaigns (e.g. product updates or compliance notices)
- Step-by-step flows where you want all users to complete each step, such as onboarding sequences
These passive engagement flows don’t require behavioral tracking, and skipping a goal prevents visitors from being prematurely removed from the journey.
To create a journey without a goal:
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In the Journey goal tile, select + Set goal.
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In the dropdown list, choose No goal.
- Select Save.
Use this option only when it’s important that all users receive the full message sequence, regardless of their behavior.
Select journey segment
Select an existing segment
By default, a new journey is set to No one. To define who can enter the journey:
- From the Settings tab, select Edit in the Segment card.
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Choose an existing segment, or hover over Custom Segment and select the Edit icon.
- Modify the segment as needed. For more information, see Segments.
- (Optional) Check Include recently created visitors without activity to include visitors who haven’t logged into your app yet.
Include recently created visitors without any activity
This optional setting lets you include visitors who were created in the past year in Pendo but haven’t had in-app activity yet, via CSV upload or API.
This can be useful when:
- Creating onboarding flows for net-new users created through email lists.
- Users opted in to communications (like webinars) but haven’t visited your app yet.
Important: Only use this setting if you're confident the email addresses are valid. High bounce rates can harm your ability to send messages from Pendo.
Even with this setting enabled, Pendo only sends emails to visitors who were created since August 2025 (when this feature was first launched), and within the last 12 months, per the Email eligibility rules detailed below.
Use this segment as entry criteria
By default, the segment you select acts as an ongoing requirement, meaning that visitors who leave the segment are immediately removed from the journey. Select Use this segment as entry criteria to change this behavior so that the segment only determines who can enter the journey.
When this option is selected, visitors continue through all journey steps even if they later leave the segment.
This can be useful when:
- Your segment conditions are time-sensitive or likely to change mid-journey, for example, targeting visitors who haven't completed onboarding, but still wanting them to receive later steps after they've completed it.
- You want to reduce drop-off caused by visitors moving in and out of a segment during a long journey.
Note: When Use this segment as entry criteria is not selected, visitors who leave the segment exit the journey immediately, and won't receive any remaining steps.
Email eligibility rules
Regardless of the selected segment, emails will not be sent to visitors created over a year ago that are without any activity in the past 12 months. This default behavior helps protect your email reputation by avoiding messages to stale or unreachable contacts.
Set a schedule
When scheduling a journey, you’ll define when it begins, when (if ever) it should expire, and whether messages should be paused on weekends. If journey throttling is turned on, you can also opt to ignore this setting. These settings help ensure messages are delivered at the right time for your audience.
1. Start date / time (Required)
This is the required field that determines when the Journey becomes active and messages are eligible to send. You must select a start time at least 15 minutes in the future.
Use the calendar and clock inputs to choose the exact start date and time.
2. Expiration date / time (Optional)
You can optionally set an expiration to stop the journey after a specific date and time. If there is no expiration date, the journey continues according to the days set for each message in the journey. If you set an expiration date and the journey expires while some visitors are in the middle of the journey, then they won’t receive all the messages in it.
Toggle this setting on to reveal the calendar and clock selectors to choose the exact expiration date and time.
3. Don't send on weekends (Optional)
This is an optional setting that pauses message delivery on Saturdays and Sundays. When turned on, any messages scheduled for a weekend will be automatically delayed until the next weekdays.
Enable this toggle to skip messages on Saturdays and Sundays.
4. Ignore journey throttling (Optional)
If journey throttling is turned on, you can Ignore journey throttling to allow visitors to enter this journey even if they've reached their active journey limit.
Journey throttling
Subscription admins can limit how many active journeys a visitor can be a part of at the same time. Visitors who reach the set limit won't enter an additional journey until they exit at least one. Other active throttling settings, such as guide and email throttling, might impact journey messages. You can turn this off for an individual journey in its scheduling settings.
To configure global journey throttling:
- In the left-side menu, go to Orchestrate > Journeys.
- Select the Settings tab.
- Turn on Journey throttling.
- Enter the maximum number of active journeys a visitor can be a part of at the same time.
Ignore throttling
If journey throttling is turned on, you can ignore it for a specific journey in its scheduling settings. You can also choose to ignore throttling on individual emails in the journey. Transactional emails ignore throttling automatically.
Note: Unlike guides, there isn't an option to order journeys.
Manage journeys
On the Journeys page, you can see a list of all your journeys. Here you can see the status of each journey, the app that the journey is running on, and updates and scheduling details. You can also filter the list by app or use the Search field to search for a journey. Select a journey to view detailed information about it.
Journey status
The Status column shows the status for each journey:
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Draft. Indicates that this message is still an in-progress draft.
- Pending review. Indicates that this message is a complete draft that's pending review. Users with appropriate permissions can submit the journey for review. A schedule must be set to submit the journey for review.
- Paused. Indicates the journey is temporarily stopped. Messages are not sent, but visitor progress is preserved.
- Active. Indicates that the journey is active and continuously sending messages. You can still update the content of guides and emails for an active journey.
- Scheduled. Indicates that the journey is scheduled. You can still update the content of guides and emails for a scheduled journey. After a journey is scheduled, you can’t change the segment or journey goal and you can't add or delete any messages from the journey.
- Completed. Indicates that it was a one-time journey that users have already completed.
- Disabled. Indicates that the journey is no longer continuously sending messages.
Pause or resume a journey
You can pause a live journey without disabling it. Pausing stops all messages from being shown and preserves visitor progress and metrics. This allows you to temporarily halt a journey and restart it later without duplication or data loss.
To pause or resume a journey:
- Go to Orchestrate > Journeys.
- Find the live journey you want to pause or resume.
- Select the status dropdown next to the journey name.
- Choose Pause or Activate.
When paused:
- Messages stop sending.
- Visitor statuses remain frozen.
- New visitors won't enter the journey.
When resumed:
- New visitors enter if they still match the segment.
- Existing visitors resume based on the current date, so some visitors may skip steps based on updated timing rules.
A tooltip explains the implications when pausing or resuming a journey. For long pauses, keep in mind that timing-based rules may cause some visitors to jump forward.
Note: Pausing a journey disables the underlying guides and emails temporarily.
Editing an active or paused journey
You can make changes to a Journey after it's been activated or paused. This allows you to update key elements, such as messages, timing, and segmentation, without interrupting visitor progress or duplicating work.
Scheduled journeys can't be edited directly. To make changes, change the status to Draft, update the journey, and then return it to Scheduled when you're done.
What you can edit
Depending on the journey status, you can modify the following:
- Message content or layout. Available for both active and paused journeys.
- Message timing (delay between steps). Only editable when the journey is paused.
- Journey segment. Only editable when the journey is paused.
Tip: for significant updates, we recommend pausing the journey first. This helps reduce inconsistencies for visitors are mid-flow.
What you can't edit
Some elements are locked once a journey has been activated:
- Adding or removing messages.
- Changing the start date or expiration date.
- Modifying the journey goal.
- Adding or updating conditional splits.
These limitations help preserve the integrity of the journey logic and ensure consistent reporting.
What happens when you edit a journey
- Segmentation updates will re-evaluate visitor eligibility.
- Timing or message edits apply only to visitors who haven't yet reached the affected step.
- Progress and performance data is retained. No historical metrics are lost.
Clone an existing journey
You can clone an entire journey, including the full journey map. This allows you to replicate successful engagement flows quickly, saving time and reducing setup errors.
To clone a journey:
- Navigate to Orchestrate > Journeys.
- On the Journeys page, locate the journey you want to clone.
- Select the ellipsis (...) next to the journey name.
- Choose Clone journey from the dropdown menu.
- In the Clone journey dialog, enter a name for the new journey.
- Select Clone.
The cloned journey will appear in your journeys list, allowing you to make modifications as needed.
Note: To clone a journey that contains messages across multiple apps, you’ll need permission to create and edit messages in the associated apps first.