Waits for another journey to complete a certain step before resuming the current flow
Cross-session messages allow journeys to securely share info and create dependent flows. Placed after the Create Cross-Session Message step, this step suspends the requesting journey until another journey processes the message. It can also provide the message ID to the processing journey by displaying it as a QR code. The processing journey typically uses the Process Cross-Session Message step to process the message, allowing the requesting journey to resume.
For example, a kiosk can create a message and display it as a QR while waiting for a mobile app to scan it. Scanning the QR can then initiate a journey that processes the message, allowing the kiosk to resume journey execution.
Once the message is processed, the journey proceeds to the next step. The journey can also access any response data added to the message by the processing journey. However, if the message is not processed before the wait timeout, the journey is aborted.
Only a single journey can wait for a given message at one time.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Message ID | Expression yielding the message ID of the message to wait for. |
| Wait timeout | Maximum period of time to wait for the message to be processed (in seconds), from when this step was initiated. Default is 300. |
| Message ID format | Whether to display the message ID as a QR code, or not at all (default). |
| Message ID display mode | If a QR format is selected, this indicates whether it should encode the message ID directly or encode a custom expression that includes the message ID and possibly other info. |
| Message ID to display | Custom expression that yields a value to encode in the QR code that is displayed to the user in the wait screen. This must include the message ID using the message_id variable and possibly other info. |
| Wait message title | Title for the wait screen. |
| Wait message text | Body for the wait screen. |
| Branch output variable | Name of the variable used to store the response data provided by the processing journey. This data can be used in subsequent journey steps, and can be found in the user_params object. Default is cross_session_message. |
This step can be configured to record step input and output data, or a custom payload, which is then surfaced in journey events in Journey Analytics for diagnostic purposes. For details, see Additional data reporting.
Assume a journey is running on a desktop device, and at a certain point, a cross-device handoff to a mobile device is required. Using the Create Cross-Session Message and Wait for Cross-Session Message steps, the journey creates a cross-session message and then waits for cross-session message from another journey. See Cross-device face authentication as an example of the flow leveraging cross-session messages.
