Affinity limitations
Affinity automates journey creation and optimization, helping you launch faster. Understanding what Affinity can and can't do helps you work with it effectively. This article outlines key boundaries across journey building, editing, and optimization.
Journey creation
Email only
Affinity currently supports email journeys only. Other channels, like SMS and push notifications, aren't yet available.
Segment creation
Affinity creates segments exclusively for each journey and doesn't reuse existing Bloomreach Engagement segments. Each journey generates fresh segment definitions that remain internal to Affinity and can't be accessed outside the journey context.
AI builds journeys from proven patterns
Affinity creates journeys based on thousands of high-performing examples. These recommendations work best for common marketing scenarios. If your business uses highly specialized or unconventional strategies, guide Affinity with detailed prompts explaining your specific needs.
The AI is optimized to generate journeys that are proven effective and safe. It may not automatically grasp your brand's unique, edgy, or experimental marketing strategy. Guide it with specific instructions in your prompt if your goal deviates from common industry practices.
Business rules require explicit context
Affinity doesn't know your company's internal business rules unless you state them. For example, it won't know that you never offer more than a 20% discount or that you avoid sending emails on weekends unless you include that context in your journey prompt.
Editing
Manual editing constraints
Manual editing enables you to adjust node properties, such as audience filters, timing delays, and control group percentages. However, you can't manually add or remove nodes, reorder journey flow steps, or introduce new branching logic. Request structural changes through conversational editing instead.
Content editing capabilities
What you can edit depends on whether you're working manually or conversationally:
| Element | Manual editing | Conversational editing |
|---|---|---|
| Add/remove/reorder blocks | ✓ Yes | ✗ No - Add blocks manually first, then edit conversationally |
| Text copy | ✓ Yes - You can rewrite copy | ✓ Yes - You can generate copy for a single block |
| Images | ✓ Yes - You can link URL manually | ⚠️ Limited - You can only ask AI to add specific URL |
| Text personalization | ⚠️ Limited - You can add personalization tags in a limited way | ✓ Yes - You can edit text personalization to almost anything |
| Event-based product personalization | ✗ No - You can't edit aggregates used in blocks manually | ⚠️ Limited - Only pre-defined static aggregates are used |
| Product recommendations | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| Block parameters | ⚠️ Limited - Only parameters made visible in block annotations | ✓ Yes - You can edit any block parameter |
| Subject line and pre-header | ⚠️ Limited - You can edit text, but can't edit personalization | ✗ No |
| Email settings | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
Key limitations:
- Block management: Add, remove, or reorder blocks manually. You can't do this conversationally. For example, instead of saying "add a new featured product block below header," add the block manually first, then ask to "display the featured product here."
- Template restrictions: You can only edit template elements marked as editable during brand asset setup. To make additional elements editable (like button colors), update block annotations in your brand assets.
Preview and testing
Desktop preview only
Affinity currently supports previewing emails in desktop view only. To preview on mobile devices, send a test email to your inbox.
Launch and optimization
Post-launch changes
You can continue adjusting journeys after launch, but changes don't take effect automatically. You must republish the journey to apply your modifications.
AI optimization
Available for specific journey types only
Dynamic wait-time optimization is available only for Abandoned Cart and Abandoned Browse journeys. Affinity automatically enables this feature during journey brief generation for these use cases. You can't enable it for other journey types.
Wait-time optimization only
After launch, Affinity experiments with send timing to improve performance. It doesn't optimize subject lines, email copy, audience criteria, or offers. You're responsible for the overall journey strategy—AI optimization improves timing execution within your designed journey.
Learning requires customer data
The optimization model needs customer interaction data to learn and improve. Optimization effectiveness increases as more customers complete the journey and provide behavioral signals.
Updated about 2 hours ago