What is Zapier?
Zapier is an online automation tool that connects your favorite apps, such as Gmail, Slack, Mailchimp, as well as RingCentral and a lot more. You can connect two or more apps to automate repetitive tasks without coding or relying on developers to build the integration. It's easy enough that anyone can build their own app workflows with just a few clicks.
For example, maybe you get a lot of email attachments in your Gmail account and you want to save them to Dropbox. Every time you get an attachment, you could open up the email, click the attachment, and then save it to Dropbox. Or you can have Zapier automate this for you, saving you time and effort.
Welcome to Zapier
How does Zapier works?
Zapier saves you time by letting you create “Zaps," automated workflows that consist of a trigger and one or more actions. When you set up and activate a new Zap, it will run its action(s) every time the trigger event occurs. For example: let’s say you set a Zap for a custom tweet that goes out for every new blogpost published. In this case, publishing a post is the trigger event and the custom tweet is the automated action that follows.
What's a Zap?
Creating an Automated Workflow
Common Zapier Terms
Below you'll find the key concepts to help you get started with Zapier and useful links with more in-depth information and guides.
Zap
A Zap is an automated workflow between your apps. For example, you may have a Zap that saves your Gmail attachments to Dropbox and another Zap that saves emails that you star in Gmail to a text file. Zaps consist of at least two parts: a trigger and one or more actions.
Learn more about creating a Zap and managing your Zaps.
Trigger
A trigger is the event in an app that starts the Zap. Once you set up a Zap, Zapier will monitor the app for that event. For the save Gmail attachments to Dropbox example, you can receive a lot of emails through your Gmail account, but the Zap isn't triggered until an email contains an attachment.
Learn more about using triggers in Zaps.
Action
An action is the event that completes the Zap. For the save Gmail attachments to Dropbox example, the action is uploading the attachment from your email to Dropbox.
Learn more about using actions in Zaps.
Task
Each piece of data you run through your Zap counts as a task. That means if your Zap adds 100 emails to Dropbox automatically, your Zap just performed 100 tasks. Every task your Zap performs is another task that you don't have to do manually.
Learn more about tasks in Zapier.
Zap editor
The Zap editor allows you to create a Zap from scratch. In the Zap editor, you can set up a trigger and one or more actions.
App
An app is a web service or application, such as Google Docs, Slack, or Salesforce. Zapier offers integrations for over 3,000 apps, letting you move data between them or automate repetitive tasks. Explore the apps you can connect to Zapier.
Test data
When you first set up your Zap trigger, Zapier will attempt to find some existing data from your trigger app to use in the Zap. For example, if your trigger brings in data from a new Google Sheets spreadsheet row, Zapier will pull in an existing row. The sample row can then be used as test data in an action step later in the Zap.
Polling interval
The polling interval or update time is the frequency that Zapier will check your trigger apps for new data. The polling interval varies between 1 to 15 minutes, but can also be immediate. Triggers labeled Instant will always trigger Zaps immediately as the trigger app pushes the data to Zapier when the event happens.
Zap History
Your Zap History displays a log of all your Zap activity, including all the data that goes in and out of each of your Zap steps.
Learn more about Zap History.
Autoreplay
If you enable Autoreplay, Zapier will attempt to retry any Zap steps that fail due to temporary errors or downtime. Autoreplay will retry the step again immediately, and then a few more times if there is still an issue. You can also manually replay Zap runs that fail or were not successful.
Filter
Filters can be added to any Zap to restrict it to run only when certain conditions are met. For example, if you want to send a text message each time you receive an email, you can add a filter so the Zap only runs when emails are received from a specific email address.
Learn more about using filters in Zaps.
Paths
Paths let you build advanced workflows to perform different actions based on different conditions. Paths use conditional, if/then logic: if A happens in your trigger app, then perform this action, if B happens, then perform this other action, and so on.
Learn more about using paths in Zaps.
Multi-step Zap
A single-step Zap has one trigger and one action. If the Zap has more than one action, or includes filters or searches, it is considered a multi-step Zap.
To learn more about how to use Zapier with RingCentral, check out our guide on how to set-up Zapier for registrations. For anything else head over to the Zapier Website.