Autoresponders have been around for a long time in Zoho CRM, mostly handling straightforward, time-based email follow-ups. Over the years, customer engagement has become more complex. There are multiple touchpoints, branching paths, behavior-based triggers, and the need to see how each folllow-up actually perform. That's where Cadences come in.

Cadences in Zoho CRM give you a cleaner, more predictable way to automate your follow-ups across emails, calls, tasks, and WhatsApp. They also give you better insight into what's working and what's not. Since Autoresponders can't support these newer use cases, they're being retired.

The Autoresponders feature will be deprecated and reach its EOL on February 12, 2026. All existing autoresponders will stop running on the same day.

If you're still using them, moving to Cadences now ensures your automated communication continues smoothly.

A quick look at what Cadences offer

Cadences don't just send emails. They let you build a sequence that reacts to how your leads or customers behave, and give you the option to adjust and control each step of the follow-ups.

You can:

• Enroll records based on a custom view
• Add email, call, task, or WhatsApp follow-ups
• Organize the follow-ups the way you want, based on how the recipients interact with the previous follow-up
• Resume or restart follow-ups automatically or when needed
• Get details on where each record is in the sequence
• Get detailed performance insights

It's simply a more modern and manageabale way to handle follow-ups.

How to transition your Autoresponders

If you're new to Cadences, here's the simplest way to move everything over. 

You won't lose your flow, you're just rebuilding it in a more capable tool.

Step 1: Review your existing Autoresponders

Open each active Autoresponder and note the following:

1. The custom view it uses (target list)
2. The email template
3. The delay or schedule between follow-ups
   
   

This is all you need to replicate the same flow in Cadences.

Step 2: Re-create the flow using Cadences

Now, head to Cadences and create a new one.

Inside your new Cadence:

1. Pick the same custom view you used earlier
   
2. Decide when new records should enter the Cadence (like immediately or after certain hour/day/week etc.)
   
3. Add an Email Follow-up step using the same template
   
4. Add the matching delay before the next step.
   

Step 3: Publish

Once you publish the Cadence, any record matching the custom view will automatically enter the flow and receive the follow-up emails.

Learn more about configuring Cadences

Once your Cadence is published, your follow-ups will continue without interruption. 

Please refer to the FAQs below for common questions that may come up while setting things up.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What permission is required to create or manage a Cadence?

Users need Cadences Enrollment and Manage Automation permissions in their profile.
Admins can enable these under Setup > Security Control > Profiles.

Depending on whether someone has Enroll and/or Un-enroll permission under Cadences Enrollment, their options inside Cadences will differ.

2. How can I see active Cadences for my records?

When a record is added to a cadence, the Cadences related list on the record’s detail page displays all relevant cadence information. You can also customize this related list to show only the columns you need, such as Start Date, Enrolled By, and Cadences Status etc.

3. Is there a limit to how many follow-up steps I can create?

No there is no restriction on the number of Follow-ups. The restriction is based on number of actions (email, calls, tasks and WhatsApp) that can be added to one Cadence.

Learn more about limits based on your CRM edition  

4. What is manual enrollment and custom-view based enrollment?

Cadences support two ways to add records: Manual Enrollment and Custom View Enrollment.

Manual Enrollment lets you handpick records and add them to a Cadence whenever needed. It’s helpful when the decision to follow up is based on context or judgment rather than a filter.

Custom View Enrollment automatically pulls records into a Cadence based on a custom view you’ve set up in the module. Any record that matches the view criteria will be added to the Cadence without you doing anything.

Learn more about adding records

5. What are the un-enroll options?

You can un-enroll records manually or set automatic un-enroll rules based on custom-view changes, follow-up results, specific dates, or record criteria.
View a full list of options and examples

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See Also: Cadences, FAQ on Cadences