Test automations with the simulator
Use the Mailsoftly flow simulator to walk a contact through your automation, watch each branch play out, and confirm real enrollments before you go live.
Before you trust an automation with live subscribers, it helps to see it run. The flow simulator pushes a sample contact through your automation and shows which path they take at each branch.
This guide shows you how to open the simulator, follow a scenario end to end, and confirm that contacts are enrolling for real.
Open your automation
Start by opening the automation you want to check in the builder. This gives you the full flow in front of you: the trigger at the top, the steps below, and the Simulate button that launches a test run.
- Make sure no step carries a missing fields badge first. A flow with incomplete steps cannot be activated, and the simulator is the place to catch that.
- Read the flow once top to bottom so you know what each branch is meant to do before you watch it play out.
With the flow in view, you are ready to simulate.
Open the flow simulator in Mailsoftly
Launch the flow simulator
Choose Simulate to open the Automation simulator in a full screen view. It watches your automation run for a sample contact step by step, and nothing here sends real email, so you can experiment freely.
- Pick your Simulation source: Myself, a specific Contact, or a whole List. Searching by name or email loads that person’s real data into the run.
- Use the controls to Start, step through with Next, or Pause and Restart. You can zoom to fit a longer flow on screen.
The simulator is the quickest way to catch a step that does not behave the way you expected.
Walk a contact through the scenario
Follow the sample contact as they move from the trigger through each step. At a condition, the flow splits into a green YES path and a red NO path, and the simulator tells you which one this contact takes.
- For rules it can check against real data, it shows Real result: YES or NO. For open or click conditions it shows a Depends on live behavior badge, since a real person decides that at send time.
- If you simulate a whole list, it reports how many contacts enter, how many an entry filter excludes, and how the group splits at each branch.
If a branch sends the wrong message, go back to the builder, fix it, and simulate again.
If your flow uses a newer branch type such as a "Value split" or a "Wait until" step, walk it through the simulator too. Checking them the same way you check a Condition confirms each contact routes where you expect before anyone live reaches them.
Confirm real contacts on the Contacts tab
Once the simulation looks right, verify the live picture. Open the Contacts tab to see the actual people enrolled and where each one sits in the flow.
When the simulator and the Contacts tab agree, you can trust the automation.
The simulator shows how the flow would run, not who is actually in it. Always confirm live enrollments on the Contacts tab before you rely on the automation.
The simulator never sends anything, but the separate Test with your own email option does run the automation for real and delivers the emails to the address you enter. Use it only when you want a true inbox test.
Ready to try it in your own account?
Free to start with your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 account. No credit card required.
