Automatic Inactivity Reminders

When you email a client their intake link, some never get around to opening it. Inactivity reminders chase those clients for you — automatically re-sending a nudge on a schedule you set, until they open the link.

Before you start

• Who can do it: Owners and Admins of a Business workspace.
• How reminders are sent: the same way as the link (see white-label email).
• Which links are reminded: the link must have been emailed from the form’s Client card or the New DS-160 form page (links you copy or make through the API aren’t reminded).

Turn on reminders

1. Open Workspace Settings → Client intake and find Inactivity reminders.
2. Tick the box to enable them — they’re off by default.
3. Add one or more reminders with Add reminder (up to 30, one for every day of a 30-day link), and drop one with Remove. Each reminder is a number of days after the link was emailed, and every one counts from that first email, not from the reminder before it.
4. Click Save. The days are saved in order, whatever order you type them in.

For example, reminders on 3, 7, 10, 15 and 25 send on day 3, day 7, day 10, day 15 and day 25 after the link goes out. Client links last 30 days by default, so day 25 makes a good last reminder.

A reminder set later than your workspace’s default link expiry is marked in the settings: it is sent only for links you set to last longer than the default.

When reminders are (and aren’t) sent

A reminder only goes out while all of these are true:

• The link was emailed to the client from the form’s Client card or the New DS-160 form page.
• It’s the newest link you’ve emailed for the form. Sending the link again doesn’t stop the earlier one working, but the reminders follow the new link and start counting again from its email.
• The client has never opened it — the moment they open the link, all further reminders stop.
• The link hasn’t expired and hasn’t been revoked.
• The form is still in progress — reminders stop if it’s completed or archived.

Reminders go to the address the link was originally emailed to, in the same language as the original invite, and link to the same secure intake page (re-using your custom domain if you have one). If you remove reminders later, any extra ones simply stop.

If several reminders are due at once, for example because you turned reminders on for links you emailed weeks ago, the client gets only the latest one, never a burst of emails. The rest of the schedule carries on from there.

Reminders to a group’s lead

A group’s lead gets one set of reminders for the group, not one for each form. They follow the newest group link you emailed the lead, on the same schedule, until the lead opens it, and list the forms the lead has not finished or sent yet. While a group has an emailed link, its forms that the lead fills in are not reminded through their own client links. The group reminder’s wording is ours, in the link’s language, and is not one of your templates.

Customize the reminder email

By default we write the reminder for you in your client’s language. To send your own wording:

1. Open Workspace Settings → Communication → Client email templates.
2. Choose Inactivity reminder from the template selector.
3. Edit the subject and body, and save. With Reminder set to Every reminder, that email goes out on every reminder.

Give a reminder its own email

Each reminder can have its own wording, so the day-3 nudge and the last reminder before the link expires can say different things.

1. Under each reminder in Inactivity reminders, click Edit email: the template editor opens with Reminder set to that reminder (for example, Reminder 2 · day 7).
2. Write the subject and body and Save. The reminder’s row then says which languages it has its own email in.

Edit email appears once the schedule is saved, so save any new or changed reminders first. Removing a reminder deletes its own email too; changing its day keeps it.

For each reminder we use the first of these that exists in the client’s language:

1. That reminder’s own email.
2. The email for Every reminder.
3. Our built-in wording.

To stop a reminder using its own email in one language, open it in the editor and click Use the email for every reminder.

Reminder templates work like the intake-link template: per language, with the same variables ({{clientLink}} is required in the body), a live preview and a test email to yourself. See Emailing Clients Their Intake Link for the variables and the editor. Reminders start with your logo and name too, like the intake email.

Expected result

Each client who was emailed a link and hasn’t opened it gets a reminder on each day you set, until they open it or the link expires. The form’s Client card shows when the next reminder goes out.

Troubleshooting