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Test mode runs a real journey against your own phone without reaching customers. It can also make a multi-day journey play out in minutes. Nothing is simulated: your allowlisted numbers get real calls from your agent and real texts from your journey’s number. Test mode is on the editor’s Test tab. It takes effect as soon as you save it, without publishing, and the journey shows a Test mode badge while it’s on.

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Allowlisted Numbers

Add up to 50 phone numbers. While test mode is on, only these numbers are ever called or texted. Anyone else isn’t enrolled, and the reason shown is “Test mode is on and the number is not allowlisted”. Include the country code: +1 (415) 555-0100 matches +14155550100, but 415 555 0100 doesn’t.
Don’t turn test mode on for a journey that is already running for customers. Anyone who isn’t on the list is ended the next time a call or text comes due. Test in a separate journey.

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Time Scale

A number from 1 to 10,080. At 1, time is real. At 60, an hour of the journey takes a minute. At 1,440, a day takes a minute. It shortens the timing you set in the journey: the time before each step, and the spacing between attempts. It doesn’t change the rules that protect contacts: If a test seems stuck, open your contact on the board. The plan names the rule that’s holding it, usually the gap between calls and texts or the daily call limit. To run a whole sequence quickly, test in a separate journey with those gaps set to 0 and the limits raised. Time scale doesn’t move a record’s date. For steps timed from a date, only the time before or after it shrinks, so a sped-up “day before” step for a Thursday appointment still fires on Thursday. To test now, use a test record dated an hour or two away, or an anchor shift.

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Anchor Shift

Test records often have dates in the past, which leaves nothing to schedule. An anchor shift moves a past date forward by the number of days you choose when the record is written. It applies to records from a custom data table, not to dates sent through the API.

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A First Test Run

  1. Create a test journey with the same steps as your real one, in Playbook mode.
  2. On Contact rules, set the gaps between calls and texts to 0 and raise the limits.
  3. On Test, add your phone number, set the time scale to 60, and add an anchor shift if your journey uses a date. Save.
  4. Publish the test journey.
  5. Add yourself with Add contacts, a record in your table, or the API.
  6. Open your card on the board and watch the plan.
  7. Answer a call, let one ring out, reply to a text, and say “call me back tomorrow at 3”.
  8. Turn test mode off when you’re done.
Check your number’s time zone first. It comes from the area code unless your contact or record has a time zone, zip code or state. A test at 8 PM Pacific from a New York number counts as 11 PM Eastern and waits until morning.
Last modified on October 19, 2026