Exercise - Build a flow accepts user input when run

  • 3 minutes

You can customize instant flows by letting the user provide specific details to use when the flow runs.

You can create an instant flow either on the Power Automate website or in the mobile app for Power Automate. For this unit, you use the website.

In this exercise, our objective is to search for a template available to create a new Outlook task and modify it to match our needs.

Prerequisites

  • Access to Power Automate.

  • A basic understanding of Power Automate and experience with creating a flow is recommended.

  • A smartphone or tablet with the Power Automate app.

Open the template

  1. From your desktop browser, navigate to the Power Automate maker portal and sign in using your organizational account.

  2. Select Templates and search send myself a reminder in 10 minutes.

    Screenshot of the Create a New Outlook Task tile as it appears in the search results.

  3. Sign in if you're prompted to do so and select Create Flow.

Customize the user input

Let's add a custom input for the amount of time of the reminder, allowing you to set the time for your reminder. We'll do this by adding a number input to our trigger.

  1. Select the trigger card and then select + Add an input.

    Screenshot of the add an input instant.

  2. Select Number and then change the text of "Number" to read "Time" and "Please enter a number" to "Enter time".

    Screenshot of the Manually trigger a flow card with the Add an input instant highlighted.

Customize the task

  1. On the Delay action, select it to expand the card.

  2. For the Count field, delete the current input and select the dynamic content option. Choose the Time option for the dynamic content.

    Screenshot of the Create a task card with the Due Date field highlighted.

  3. Change the title of the flow to "Send myself a reminder in X minutes". Select Save.

Run the flow

Next let's use the Power Automate mobile app to run the instant flow that we just created. We will provide the user input to send ourselves a reminder for a specified amount of time.

  1. Sign in to Power Automate mobile app.

    Note

    If you don't see any flows listed when you login, it's possible you need to select the environment first.

    Screenshot of how to select the environment.

  2. Select Instant flows from the bottom, then select our Send myself a reminder in X minutes flow.

  3. Enter 1 as the time and select Run Flow. Wait a minute for the notification. You should see a notification with a Power Automate icon appearing on your device, telling you that it is a "Reminder by Power Automate".

    Note

    If you don't get the notification, but the flow successfully ran, make sure that notifications are enabled on your device for Power Automate.

Notice how you can modify a template flow with dynamic data coming from user inputs.