Yes, you can use Receive Task. To know that task is staretd use execution listener.
<receiveTask id="waitTask" name="Wait Task">
<extensionElements>
<activiti:executionListener event="start" class="SendMessageExecutionListener"></activiti:executionListener>
</extensionElements>
</receiveTask>
Listener must implement ExecutionListener
interface
public class SendMessageExecutionListener implements ExecutionListener {
@Override
public void notify(DelegateExecution execution) throws Exception {
//send message here
}
}
And when subsriber handles message signal process to continue.
See more details in Activiti User Guide Java Receive Task section.