{"id":110805,"date":"2017-04-27T08:26:32","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T15:26:32","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-06-11T08:14:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T15:14:27","slug":"parallel-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-automate\/parallel-actions\/","title":{"rendered":"Add parallel branches in flows and five new services"},"content":{"rendered":"

Build flows with parallel steps<\/h2>\n

Flow has been an awesome tool for building sequential flows, along with conditional logic. This means you can create a sequence of steps that execute one after another. Today, we are announcing that Microsoft Flow supports parallel execution as well: meaning you can have two or more steps that run at the same time, after which the workflow will only proceed once all parallel steps have completed.<\/p>\n

One simple example for this is using our new Approvals feature<\/strong><\/a>. Imagine for an incoming request for approval from both Finance and Sales, but you don’t want for one to approve before the other to sees the request. With the new parallel functionality, you can dispatch both requests simultaneously.<\/p>\n

To get started, add your first step and then select the Insert a new step<\/strong> button above<\/em> the step that you want to run in parallel to.<\/p>\n

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Next, select Add a parallel branch<\/strong> and what you’d like to add (in this case, just Add an action)<\/p>\n

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Now you will be able to choose your second action and then it will show up alongside the first action that you had. If needed, you can continue to add additional actions in parallel.<\/p>\n

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Once you have added actions in parallel you have two options for how to add additional steps to your flow:<\/p>\n

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  1. You can use the small\u00a0Insert a new step<\/strong>\u00a0button (the circular plus button) directly underneath each action to add a new step to that particular branch. With this approach, you can have as many steps run in parallel and sequence in multiple branches.\u00a0<\/li>\n
  2. Use the large\u00a0New step<\/strong>\u00a0button at the bottom of the whole workflow to add an action that will run after\u00a0all<\/em> parallel branches complete. You can think of this as merging the flow back together after it has branched apart.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    With these new capabilities you can build much more powerful flows, including with approvals that you want to happen simultaneously. Join us on the community<\/a> to discuss how you will use this great new feature!<\/p>\n

    Five new services supported<\/h2>\n

    In the past week we have released support for five new services:<\/p>\n