> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.smartico.ai/welcome/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.smartico.ai/welcome/products/crm-automation/activities-of-flows/activity-custom-im.md).

# Activity: Custom IM

If you are using a communication channel such as **in-platform Popups** or **Notification Centers**, Smartico offers a **Custom IM** solution. Smartico can act as a resource manager for such channels, triggering delivery from Journeys, Scheduled Campaigns, or REST API calls. As a final delivery step, Smartico will call your API to send the message.

👉 <mark style="color:orange;">Read more about Custom IM implementation</mark><mark style="color:purple;">:</mark>[ **here**](https://help.smartico.ai/welcome/technical-guides/secured-messaging-gateways-email-sms-im#custom-im-via-api-supplied-by-customer)

<figure><img src="/files/ay9dO9lo8XaWSeOtPW3i" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

In the Custom IM activity operators can configure the following options:

1. **Provider** - choose the provider that will be used to send the communication. Operators can also choose the Automatic Selection (multi-brand setup).
   1. Automatic Selection (multi-brand setup) - used to automatically select the first Custom IM gateway that meets the conditions. By default the first condition is Brand, but you can add more user properties to the gateway. This gives you more flexibility when you want to filter a specific segment of users to use different Gateway, for example.
2. **Allowed Communication hours** - used to define how the flow should behave if the time of the sending is in the ‘Do not Disturb’ period of the user.
3. **Custom IM message** - used to add the asset that will be sent to players, where you can define the message content. Before sending any communication, the corresponding asset must be created. You can also add multiple message variations for A/B testing, allowing you to test different versions and optimize engagement. When adding a second variation, you can specify the percentage of the audience that will receive each version, ensuring controlled message distribution.

<figure><img src="/files/euLho4Mmbhhv7zjtgPPA" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>


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