App trigger

App trigger

Triggers a flow when an event or a data update occurs in an app.
For example, when a new lead is added in Zoho CRM.

How to configure

To configure the app based trigger:
  1. Click Configure in the App trigger box.

  2. Pick an app to trigger your flow and click Next.
  3. Choose the event in the app to trigger your flow and click Next.
  4. If you have not created any connections already, click Connect.



    If there are existing connections, you can choose to create a new one by clicking New connection. Once you create a connection, it can be used for various flows in your organization. Note that different apps have different authentication methods.



    If you would like to choose an existing connection, pick from the dropdown.


  5. After configuring or selecting a connection, the variable name will be autofilled. You can edit the name if needed. When renaming the variable, note that:
    • All names must start with a letter. Variable names can contain alphanumeric characters and underscores.
    • Other characters, such as spaces, are not accepted. Names must be unique to avoid naming clashes.
    • If you use the same variable name for multiple actions, the result of the action executed last will be stored in the variable. E.g: new_deal, createTask
  6. Enter data in the fields that appear.


  7. Click Done.

App trigger mechanism

App triggers can be either be Polling or Realtime.
  1. Polling trigger: This is the most common mechanism used in app triggers. When you use this trigger, Zoho Flow checks for new events in the connected app every 5 to 15 minutes to start the flow. The frequency of this checking will vary depending on your pricing plan.

  2. Realtime trigger: With this trigger, it works like a webhook trigger, and the connected app will send new event data instantly, and Zoho Flow will start the flow right away. 


You can look for the label next to a trigger name to find out if it is polling or realtime. 

Note: An app trigger's mechanism is fixed, and cannot be changed.

Trigger criteria

You can configure your trigger in such a way that your flow executes only when certain conditions are met. This avoids the extra step of adding a Decision logic following the trigger. While setting up your trigger, navigate to Filter criteria and configure the test conditions. The first dropdown is the list of variables from the trigger. The second dropdown is the operation to be performed. The field is what the variable should be compared with.


To add more test conditions, click the + button. Test conditions are separated by AND/OR logic.

AND - Output is true only if both the test conditions are true
OR - Output is true if one or both the test conditions are true

Adding groups

You can also stack together multiple test conditions as groups by clicking the Add Group button. It can then be separated using AND/OR logic.


In the above illustration, the first group contains two test conditions separated using 'OR', which checks whether the Lead was created by either Frank or Tom. If it is true, it then goes to the second group, which checks whether the Phone number field in that Lead entry is not empty. The flow will trigger only if the lead was created either by Frank or by Tom, and if the Phone number field is not empty.