Amazon Connect contact flows and routing profiles

Verified 2026-09-07 · 60 claims · sources tier 2

Also known as Amazon Connect Customer, contact flow, flow.

AWS documentation states that the legacy Amazon Connect contact centre product is now called Amazon Connect Customer, while Amazon Connect refers to a portfolio of agentic solutions for business functions 39. Within this platform, contact flows govern interaction logic and customer experience, while routing profiles link queues to agents and dictate how contacts are distributed 48​40.

Flow types and designer mechanics

The flow-type table documents 10 flow types: Inbound flow, Campaign flow, Customer queue flow, Customer hold flow, Customer whisper flow, Outbound whisper flow, Agent hold flow, Agent whisper flow, Transfer to agent flow, and Transfer to queue flow 48. Correspondingly, the ContactFlow API type accepts exactly 10 values: CONTACT_FLOW, CUSTOMER_QUEUE, CUSTOMER_HOLD, CUSTOMER_WHISPER, AGENT_HOLD, AGENT_WHISPER, OUTBOUND_WHISPER, AGENT_TRANSFER, QUEUE_TRANSFER, and CAMPAIGN 6.

Each flow type exposes only the blocks appropriate to its scenario, meaning choosing the wrong type at creation time leaves required blocks unavailable 54. Amazon Connect does not allow importing a flow into a flow of a different type, so switching type after starting requires recreating the flow from scratch 32.

In the flow designer, Save stores a draft of the flow and Publish activates it immediately; every connector must be attached to a block before a flow can be published 46. Flow logging requires two conditions: while enabling flow logging on the instance creates the CloudWatch log group automatically, a flow emits logs only if it contains a Set logging behavior block 26.

For version management, the flow designer exposes previously published versions through a Latest: Published dropdown, and rollbacks are performed by opening a previous version and choosing Publish 10. At the API layer, the CreateContactFlowVersion API supports creating versions only for flows of type Campaign 55. Flow versions created through CreateContactFlowVersion are immutable and monotonically increasing, and the API call fails if the supplied FlowContentSha256 differs from that of the $LATEST published flow content 56.

Flow export and import operates under specific boundaries:

• A flow can be exported only if it has fewer than 200 blocks and a total size below 1MB, tracked by an in-designer block counter 19.
• AWS documents the flow import and export feature as being in Beta status and warns that flows exported during the beta may fail to import after future releases 22.
• AWS states that support for importing legacy flows into the flow designer ends on 03/31/2026, requiring legacy flows to be manually imported through the updated flow designer to convert them to the new flow language format 25.
• On import, Amazon Connect resolves referenced resources by ARN and falls back to matching a resource of the same name when the ARN is not found; unresolved resources allow saving, but the flow cannot be published if any required parameter remains unresolved 21.

Flow modules and chat workflows

Flow modules provide reusable functions across all Amazon Connect flow types 31. Modules can invoke other modules up to 5 levels of nesting, backed by a stack limit that prevents recursive invocation 31. Flow module versions are immutable snapshots, aliases can be assigned to specific versions, and using the $.LATEST alias tracks the newest version automatically 30. However, flow modules cannot override the flow local data of the invoking flow; external attributes, Amazon Lex attributes, Customer Profiles attributes, agent assist attributes, queue metrics, and stored customer input are unavailable inside a module, requiring data to be passed in and out as attributes 29.

Agent-initiated flows are supported only on chat channels, including web chat, SMS, WhatsApp Business, and Apple Messages for Business, while voice and other channels are not currently supported 2. While an agent-initiated workflow runs, transfers and adding new participants do not work until the workflow is completed or cancelled 1. Furthermore, only 1 agent-initiated flow can execute at a time per contact, with a maximum limit of 10 per chat 1.

Routing profiles and distribution logic

Queues in Amazon Connect serve as waiting areas for contacts and link to agents only through routing profiles, which also define handled channels, queue priorities, and delays 40. Each agent is assigned to exactly 1 routing profile, though a single routing profile can have many agents assigned 33.

When distributing contacts, Amazon Connect applies specific ordering rules:

• By default, when multiple agents are ready, an inbound contact routes to the agent in Available status the longest; contacts within a queue are served first-come, first-served by time in queue 27.
• Handling an outbound contact moves an agent to the bottom of the inbound routing order by default, though a routing profile setting named "Outbound calls should not impact routing order" suppresses this behavior 34.
• Queue priority in a routing profile takes precedence over delay, preventing a contact in a lower-priority queue from being offered ahead of higher-priority queues merely because it aged past its delay 38.
• The Delay setting requires the configured number of seconds to elapse before a contact can be offered to agents with that profile, even if those agents are idle 18.
• Queue priority governs which queue an individual agent is searched against rather than which available agent receives a contact, as routing always attempts the longest-available agent first 37.
• Contacts in queue and channel combinations assigned exclusively to the manually assigned section of a routing profile do not route automatically; agents self-assign them from the worklist app 28.

Routing profiles also manage agent queues and workload concurrency:

• Agent queues are created automatically when an agent is added to the contact centre, receiving contacts only when explicitly routed there by a flow 4.
• Contacts in agent queues have the highest priority and zero delay, prompting Amazon Connect to offer an agent-queue contact ahead of contacts in standard queues 3.
• Workload type concurrency allows up to 5 workload types per channel in a single profile, the sum of their concurrency values cannot exceed the channel maximum limit of 10, and workload-type and channel-level concurrency are mutually exclusive for a given channel 60.
• If a contact's workload type fails to match any workload-type row in the routing profile, the contact remains in queue indefinitely 59.

Contact transfers and flow execution order

Amazon Connect records 1 of 13 initiation methods on every contact: INBOUND, OUTBOUND, TRANSFER, CALLBACK, API, QUEUE_TRANSFER, DISCONNECT, WEBRTC_API, EXTERNAL_OUTBOUND, MONITOR, AGENT_REPLY, FLOW, and CAMPAIGN_PREVIEW 24. Transfers executed by an agent using quick connects in the Contact Control Panel (CCP) generate a new contact record with the initiation method TRANSFER 50.

Amazon Connect quick connects come in agent, queue, and phone number types 49. Configuring agent or queue transfers requires creating a flow of the matching Transfer to agent or Transfer to queue type and selecting it on the quick connect 49. A quick connect becomes usable only after it is added to a queue used in a flow and that queue is included in the transferring agent's routing profile 42. Phone number quick connects invoke no flow; calls connect directly to destinations using the caller ID configured on the queue rather than an outbound caller ID set by flow logic 35.

Flow execution sequences vary by interaction scenario:

• Simple inbound voice call: Runs Inbound flow, Customer queue flow, Agent whisper flow, and Customer whisper flow before the caller connects to the agent 23.
• Agent-to-agent transfer: Runs Agent transfer flow, Agent whisper flow to the destination agent, and Customer whisper flow to the source agent, while playing Customer hold flow to the original caller throughout 5.
• Agent-to-queue transfer: Runs Queue transfer flow, Agent whisper flow to the destination agent, and Customer whisper flow to the source agent, while playing Customer hold flow to the original caller throughout 41.

For all three quick connect types, the contact that the transferring agent worked on hears the Default customer hold flow unless an alternate customer hold flow is specified 17. Once connected through an agent or queue quick connect, the CCP provides Join (to conference all parties), Hold all, holding the destination agent, or End call (which disconnects the transferor while leaving the destination agent and customer connected) 57. AWS warns against placing sensitive information in Transfer to agent flows because a cold transfer disconnects the agent before completion, causing the flow to execute on and play content to the caller 9.

When contacts are requeued, transfer age depends on the mechanism: quick connect transfers back to a queue retain the original enqueue time for ranking, whereas queue-to-queue transfers driven by flow or API assign a new enqueue time 53. Queue-to-queue transfers are capped at 11 per interaction because contact chains cannot exceed 12 contacts and every transfer adds a contact 11.

Queue transfer and routing criteria blocks

The Transfer to queue block is supported in Inbound flows, Customer queue flows, Transfer to agent flows, and Transfer to queue flows, but not in Customer hold, Customer whisper, Outbound whisper, Agent hold, or Agent whisper flows 52. Outside Customer queue flows and callback setups, the Transfer to queue block places the contact in queue and terminates the current flow 51. It requires a preceding Set working queue block, except within a Customer queue flow or when an outbound campaign directs to an inbound flow with a queue predetermined by campaign settings 47. If the target queue is at capacity, the contact branches to At capacity and stays in its current working queue; other errors (such as invalid ARNs or disabled queues) branch to Error 7.

The Set routing criteria block functions in Inbound flows, Customer queue flows, Transfer to agent flows, and Transfer to queue flows, and must pair with a Transfer to queue block to activate 13. Routing criteria work as follows:

• Routing criteria define sequential routing steps with optional expiry; Amazon Connect activates the first step upon transfer to a standard queue, moves to subsequent steps upon expiry, and defaults to the longest-available agent in the routing profile once all steps expire 45.
• Routing steps carry 1 of 6 statuses: Inactive, Active, Expired, Joined, Interrupted, or Deactivated 15.
• A single step can combine up to 8 attributes with AND and up to 3 OR conditions (each holding up to 8 attributes); OR and NOT require dynamic criteria setting, and OR conditions must sit at the top level 12.
• A preferred-agent routing step can target up to 10 agents; the contact remains restricted to those agents until expiry even if agents are offline, busy, in non-productive statuses, or deleted from the instance 36.
• Routing criteria have no effect if the contact is transferred into an agent queue 14.

Default service quotas

Default quotas per instance on new accounts include the following resource allocations: 43

In calculating the Concurrent active calls per instance quota, contacts handled by a flow, waiting in queue, handled by an agent, or dialed outbound are counted, whereas external transfers and callbacks waiting in a callback queue are excluded 20.

Applicability

Across the claims in this article, the evidence covers Amazon Web Services Amazon Connect Customer across multi-tenant deployments, verified as of 2026-09-07. Specific API versioning details are not covered by any claim in this article.

What remains uncertain

An Amazon Connect flow block definitions reference covering every block and its per-flow-type support matrix is not covered by any claim in this article. A terminology crosswalk between Amazon Connect flow types and Webex CC Flow Designer constructs is not covered by any claim in this article. Agentic voice capability inside flows listed in the flows table of contents is not covered by any claim in this article. A flow language action reference including DequeueContactAndTransferToQueue and CreateCallbackContact is not covered by any claim in this article. How far the Amazon Connect Customer rename extends across console, API namespace, pricing, and billing artefacts is not covered by any claim in this article. APIs for migrating flows across instances, Regions, and environments are not covered by any claim in this article. Emergency calling and external transfer behaviour when a phone number quick connect bypasses all flows is not covered by any claim in this article. Flow and routing profile replication under Amazon Connect Global Resiliency is not covered by any claim in this article.

3 claims on this topic await human review and are not used in this article.

WarmTransfer. (2026, September 7). Amazon Connect contact flows and routing profiles. WarmTransfer. https://warmtransfer.net/knowledge/amazon-connect-flows

@misc{warmtransfer-amazon-connect-flows,
  title  = {Amazon Connect contact flows and routing profiles},
  author = {{WarmTransfer}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://warmtransfer.net/knowledge/amazon-connect-flows},
  note   = {Verified 2026-09-07}
}