Bot Availability Schedule #

The availability schedule controls when your AI bot is active and responding to messages. You can set specific hours for each day of the week so the bot only operates when you want it to - during business hours, extended hours, or around the clock.

How It Works #

When a message comes in from a contact, the platform checks whether the current time is within the bot’s active hours for that day:

• If yes: The bot processes the message and responds.
• If no: The bot stays silent for now. The message is saved and the AI answers it automatically the moment the next window opens — nobody has to do anything, and you don’t need a new message to trigger it. See What Happens Outside Active Hours below. The chat says so too: the status bar above the reply box reads Outside working hours — AI resumes at the next opening time, and switches back to Active on its own when the window opens.

Default behavior: If you do not set an availability schedule, the bot is available 24/7 and will respond at any time of day or night.

Setting Your Bot’s Active Hours #

During Onboarding #

If you use the guided onboarding wizard and select a booking-related use case, you can set up your availability schedule as part of the onboarding process. This gets your bot’s active hours configured before you even finish setting up your first agent.

For an Agent #

1. Open the Agent (under AI Studio → AI Agents).
2. Click its Active Hours tab — it’s step 2 of the editor.

3. Switch off the Active 24/7 toggle at the top of the tab. This reveals seven rows — one for each day of the week (Monday through Sunday), each off by default.

4. Switch on a day’s toggle, then click Add time slot (or edit the default 06:00–23:00 window that appears) to set when the bot should be active that day.

5. To keep the bot off for a whole day, leave that day’s toggle off.
6. Click Save changes at the bottom when you’re done.

Nothing to set for after-hours: messages that arrive while the schedule is closed are answered automatically at the next opening — see What Happens Outside Active Hours.

Shortcut for 24/7 bots: At the top of the Active Hours tab there is an Active 24/7 toggle. Leave it on (the default) to let the bot respond at all hours — this hides the per-day rows entirely.

Watch out: if you switch every single day off (instead of using the Active 24/7 toggle), the platform treats that as an empty schedule and the bot goes back to replying 24/7 — it does NOT mean the bot is fully silent. Keep at least one day on if you actually want the bot to stay quiet on the others.

Example: Standard Business Hours #

In this example, the bot is active Monday through Friday during business hours, with shorter hours on Saturday, and completely off on Sunday.

Split Schedules (Multiple Time Slots Per Day) #

You can set more than one active window per day. This is useful if you want the bot on during certain periods but off during others.

Example: Morning and evening, off in the afternoon

The bot responds during both time windows but stays silent from 12:00 to 16:00.

You can also set a window that crosses midnight (e.g. 22:00-06:00), and a slot whose start and end times are the same is treated as active for the whole day.

Timezone Settings #

Your availability schedule runs on the timezone set in your account.

To set your timezone:

1. Click Settings near the bottom of the main sidebar.
2. Under the Account group, click Profile.
3. Find the Timezone field in the Preferences card and select yours from the list.
4. Click Save. All availability times now use this timezone.

What if your contacts are in different timezones? The schedule always uses YOUR timezone. For example, if you set the bot to be active 09:00-18:00 in Central European Time, a contact messaging from New York at 10:00 AM Eastern (which is 16:00 CET) will get a response because 16:00 falls within your active hours.

What Happens Outside Active Hours #

When a message arrives while the bot is off, the message is saved — nothing is lost, and nobody has to do anything about it. The AI’s reply is scheduled to send the moment your next active window opens; you don’t need a new message to trigger it, and you don’t need to resume anything by hand.

While it waits, the chat shows an amber Outside working hours status, and it sits under the Outside hours filter in Chats — so everything holding for the next opening is one click away.

You can always reply manually in the meantime — regardless of the bot’s schedule, you can message contacts yourself at any time from the Chat Interface. If you do, the waiting AI reply is cancelled, so the contact never gets a stale bot answer on top of yours.

Good to know: Follow-up messages also respect the bot’s schedule. If you enable “Respect Business Hours” in your follow-up settings, scheduled follow-ups will only be sent during the bot’s active hours.

Common Schedules #

Always On (24/7) #

Leave the availability section empty or unconfigured (or leave/switch on Active 24/7). The bot responds at any time.

Best for: Support bots, international audiences, agents where you want the fastest possible response.

Business Hours Only #

Set Monday-Friday, 09:00-18:00 (or your actual business hours).

Best for: B2B outreach, professional services, situations where after-hours messages would seem unusual.

Extended Hours #

Set longer windows (e.g., 07:00-22:00) including evenings and weekends.

Best for: E-commerce, consumer brands, audiences who browse outside normal business hours.

Event-Based Windows #

Set narrow time windows around specific events or promotions.

Best for: Webinar follow-ups, product launches, limited-time offers where the bot only needs to be active for a few hours.

Tips #

1. Match your audience’s expectations. If your customers expect quick replies at 10 PM, keep the bot active. If messaging at midnight would seem off-brand, restrict the hours.

2. Consider your team’s availability. If the bot alerts a human team member and nobody is around to respond, the contact waits. Align bot hours with team availability when possible.

3. Use “always on” when people can reach you any time. If contacts can message you around the clock (for example, via a website chat widget), having the bot available 24/7 ensures nobody is left waiting.

4. Test your schedule. After setting your hours, send a test message outside active hours to confirm the bot stays silent, then send one during active hours to confirm it responds.

Next Steps #

• AI Agents — where the Active Hours tab lives, alongside the rest of the Agent’s setup.
• Automated Follow-Ups — how “Respect Business Hours” interacts with your active-hours schedule.