Google is making automated workflows in Workspace Studio more flexible with a new “Wait until” step that allows users to pause a flow and automatically resume it at a specified date and time or after a set duration. The addition makes it easier to build multi-stage automations that depend on timing without having to create multiple separate workflows.

Announced on November 10, the new step gives users more control over when automated tasks continue. Instead of executing every action immediately after the previous one finishes, a flow can now wait for a specific moment before moving forward.

This could be particularly useful for businesses and teams managing customer communications, employee onboarding, reminders, and recurring updates. For example, a workflow could automatically send a follow-up email several days after a customer meeting, schedule onboarding reminders at appropriate intervals, or wait until Monday morning to share a weekly team digest in Google Chat.

Previously, workflows requiring these kinds of delays often had to be divided into separate scheduled flows. The new Wait until step brings those actions together, allowing users to manage an entire sequence within a single automation.

How the new Wait until step works

The new feature is designed as a flow control step that users can insert wherever a pause is needed in their automation. It supports several scheduling options, depending on how a workflow needs to operate.

Users can configure a flow to resume on a specific day next week, such as Monday at 8 AM, making it useful for delaying non-urgent notifications until the beginning of the workweek.

Another option allows users to specify an exact future date and time. For instance, a workflow can wait three days before continuing with a follow-up at 5 PM. This makes it easier to coordinate multi-day email sequences, task reminders, and deadline check-ins.

There is also an option to pause a flow for a fixed duration. Users can specify a combination of hours, minutes, and seconds, with a maximum waiting period of 14 days. A workflow could, for example, pause for 30 minutes before automatically proceeding to its next action.

Importantly, the Wait until step also works inside conditional branches (Check if) and loops (Repeat for each). This means users can introduce timing-based pauses even in more complex workflows rather than being limited to simple, linear automations.

Track paused workflows in Workspace Studio

Google is also providing visibility into paused workflows through the Activity tab in Workspace Studio.

While a flow is waiting, users can monitor its progress and see when it is scheduled to resume. The activity log records the scheduled resume timestamp and associated time zone, with entries indicating when a flow is waiting and when it has resumed.

This should make it easier to understand what is happening with longer-running automations, particularly when several workflows are waiting for different dates or times.

Another important detail is that the feature does not require any additional administrator configuration. Google says there is no admin control for the new functionality, so eligible end users can start using it directly in Workspace Studio.

Availability and rollout

The new Wait until step is rolling out to Google Workspace customers on both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. Google began the full rollout on November 9, 2026, with feature visibility expected to take between one and three days.

The feature is available to the following plans:

• Google Workspace Business: Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus.
• Google Workspace Enterprise: Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus.
• Google Workspace Education: Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, and Education Plus.
• Education add-ons: Google AI Pro for Education and Teaching and Learning.
• Other add-ons: AI Expanded Access.

Eligible users can access the feature through Google Workspace Studio and start adding Wait until steps to their automated flows.

With this addition, Workspace Studio becomes more capable of handling workflows that need to unfold over time rather than simply executing a sequence of actions immediately. More importantly, users can now build these time-dependent automations in one place without writing code or maintaining multiple separate flows.