# Journey elements
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EARLY ACCESS

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Use elements in Journeys to design personalized, automated conversations. Each element type serves a specific role: determining how a person enters the journey, what messages they receive, and how the journey connects with external systems. You can add up to 100 elements to a journey.

Use elements to:
  - Determine how and when a person enters or exits the journey.
  - Send messages across channels like SMS, Email, WhatsApp, and more.
  - Build interactive voice menus with IVR.
  - Control journey logic with waits, conditions, and profile updates.
  - Connect to external systems and live agents.

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## Select element panel [#select-element-panel]

When you add an element to the journey canvas, the **Select element** panel opens. Use the **Search options** field to find a specific element by name. Elements are organized into the following categories.

### Channels

Send messages through the following channels.

- Send SMS message
- Send Viber message
- Send Messenger message
- Send Email
- Send Mobile Push
- Send Web Push notification
- Send RCS message
- Send WhatsApp message
- Send LINE message
- Send MMS message
- Send Apple Message for Business
- Send In-app message

For more information, see [Channels](https://www.infobip.com/docs/automation-studio/journeys/journey-elements/channels).

### IVR

Build interactive voice menus and manage voice calls.

- Start outgoing call
- Collect
- Forward call
- Play
- Record Voicemail
- Hang up

For more information, see [IVR](https://www.infobip.com/docs/automation-studio/journeys/journey-elements/ivr).

### Actions

Control journey logic, manage audience data, and connect to external systems.

- Evaluate inbound message
- Call API
- Failover
- Add to Do Not Contact list
- Remove from Do Not Contact list
- Update person profile
- Segment audience
- Update variable
- Add Tag
- Remove Tag
- Wait for change in people profile
- Wait for a date
- Pause
- Wait for an event
- Notify internal recipients
- Catalog lookup
- Split audience

For more information, see [Functions](https://www.infobip.com/docs/automation-studio/journeys/journey-elements/functions), [Channels](https://www.infobip.com/docs/automation-studio/journeys/journey-elements/channels#evaluate-inbound-message) (Evaluate inbound message, Failover), and [Functions](https://www.infobip.com/docs/automation-studio/journeys/journey-elements/functions#call-api-integrations) (Call API).

### Infobip apps

Transfer participants to other journeys, agents, chatbots, or external Infobip applications.

- Transfer to journey
- Transfer call to human agent
- Transfer chat to human agent
- Transfer to chatbot
- Transfer call to voicebot
- Transfer call to AI agent
- Transfer call to voice application
- Custom Exchange elements

For more information, see [Journey integrations](https://www.infobip.com/docs/automation-studio/integrations/journey-integrations).

### Exchange apps

Custom integration elements that connect to third-party platforms configured for your account. The available elements depend on the exchange apps installed in your Infobip account.

For more information, see [Custom Exchange elements](https://www.infobip.com/docs/automation-studio/integrations/journey-integrations#custom-exchange-elements-integrations).

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## Personalization using placeholders

In journey elements, you can use placeholders to personalize messages and other fields for each recipient.

Add a placeholder such as `firstName` to include the person's name, or `orderID` to provide relevant context in a transactional message. Placeholders are available in fields like message body, subject lines, and URLs. Availability depends on the element.

Supported placeholder types:
  - [Standard attributes](https://www.infobip.com/docs/customer-profiles/manage-data#attributes)
  - [Custom attributes](https://www.infobip.com/docs/customer-profiles/manage-data#attributes)
  - Contact information
  - [Variable names](https://www.infobip.com/docs/automation-studio/journeys/manage-journeys/journey-settings#flow-variables-settings)
  - [Channel-specific attributes](https://www.infobip.com/docs/customer-profiles/manage-data#channel-attributes)
  - [Computed attributes](https://www.infobip.com/docs/customer-profiles/manage-data#computed-attributes)

NOTE
If you use **DateTime** attributes or variables, the output format is **2021-12-15T14:24:00Z**. Using DateTime attributes directly in messages or Voice IVR journeys may cause display issues. To avoid this, use the [*formatDateTime*](https://www.infobip.com/docs/expression-language/expression-language-reference#format-date-time-date-time-functions) function in [Expression Language](https://www.infobip.com/docs/expression-language) to convert the value to the format you need.

The following image shows the placeholder picker in a journey element.

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