Auto-replies and quiet hours

Auto-replies handle inbound messages you can't answer immediately; quiet hours stop outbound messages going out at times you've decided are off-limits. Both are configured against the business hours and time zone set in Settings → Business hours, and together they're the cheapest way to keep expectations honest without adding headcount.

Business hours come first

Everything on this page depends on the schedule. Set your opening hours per day of the week, the instance time zone, and any public holidays or planned closures. Get the holiday list in before the season it applies to — the most common auto-reply failure is a "we'll reply within an hour" greeting cheerfully firing on a bank holiday.

The three auto-reply types

Write them as three distinct messages. A single generic "thanks, we'll be in touch" covering all three states is worse than nothing, because it gives a contact no information they didn't already have.

The wording that works is specific: name the window ("we reply within two working hours"), name the return time for out-of-hours ("we're back at 9am Monday"), and offer a self-service route where one exists. Never promise a response time your team can't hold — an auto-reply that overpromises converts a patient contact into an annoyed one.

Throttling and repeat messages

Auto-replies are throttled per conversation, so a contact who fires off three messages in a row receives one reply rather than three. A new auto-reply only fires again once the conversation has been quiet long enough to count as new. This is the behaviour you want, and it's worth explaining to any team that expects an acknowledgement per message.

Quiet hours for outbound

Quiet hours are the reverse direction: a window during which campaigns and automated sends are held back. The reasons are partly regulatory — several markets restrict commercial messaging by hour — and partly practical, since a 3am marketing SMS produces opt-outs and complaints rather than sales.

Set the window, then choose the hold behaviour:

• Queue and release — the message waits and sends at the start of the next permitted window. This is the right default for campaigns and non-urgent automations.
• Drop and log — the message is discarded and recorded. Use this for time-sensitive alerts that would be misleading if delivered hours late.

Quiet hours are evaluated against the contact's own local time where their time zone is known, falling back to the instance time zone. If you send across countries, keeping contact time zones populated is what makes this work; without it, a single instance-level window will be wrong for half your list.

Agent replies in live conversations are never blocked by quiet hours. Only automated and campaign traffic is held, so out-of-hours support conversations continue normally.

Interaction with the 24-hour window

On WhatsApp, an auto-reply sent in response to the contact's own message is inside the 24-hour customer-service window, so free-form text is fine and no template approval is needed. The moment a message would leave that window — a queued campaign message released the next morning, for instance — an approved template is required. Build your quiet-hours campaign flows on templates so a release after the window doesn't fail at send time.

Deployment tips

• Test all three inbound states before launch: message the instance during hours, after hours, and on a date you've marked as a holiday.
• Schedule a test campaign inside quiet hours and confirm it holds and releases as configured, rather than assuming the setting took effect.
• Review the response-time promise quarterly. If the team's real first-response time has drifted, change the auto-reply rather than the target.
• Match the widget to the messaging channels. The live chat widget should reflect the same hours; a widget inviting a chat while the out-of-hours reply says you're closed is a bad first impression.
• Keep the language consistent with your quick replies so the automated and human messages sound like the same organisation — see quick replies.
• Log holidays annually, in one sitting, at the start of the year.

Billing

Auto-replies and quiet hours are part of the flat $50/month instance connection and management fee. Every auto-reply that goes out on a metered channel is billed as a normal message on that channel — worth noting if you run high inbound volume on WhatsApp or SMS. See billing and plans for rates.

Steps at a glance

1. Set your business hours and time zoneIn Settings → Business hours, define opening hours per day and the instance time zone, and add public holidays and closures.
2. Write a greeting auto-replyCreate the first-contact message that confirms you received the enquiry and states a realistic response time.
3. Write an out-of-hours auto-replyAdd a separate message for contacts who write outside business hours, saying when you'll be back rather than just that you're closed.
4. Add an away reply for busy periodsOptionally set an away message that fires inside business hours when no agent is available or a queue threshold is hit.
5. Configure quiet hours for outboundSet the window during which campaigns and automated sends are held, and choose whether held messages are queued to the next allowed slot or dropped.
6. Test each stateMessage the instance during hours, outside hours and on a holiday date, and schedule a test send inside quiet hours to confirm it holds.

Frequently asked