Chat Support Hours
Support hours tell the messenger when your team is actively staffing chat. Outside those hours, visitors get an out-of-hours welcome that says when you're back. Anything that mentions a reply from your team names the next opening time. The AI agent keeps answering from your articles around the clock.
Set your hours
Go to Inbox, then Messenger settings, then Support hours, and switch on Use support hours. Support hours are off by default, which means your team is treated as always available.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Time zone | The zone your schedule is written in, for example America/Los_Angeles |
| Weekly schedule | For each day: staffed or not, and from and to times. An end time at or before the start runs past midnight (22:00 to 06:00). |
| Holidays | Dates when you're away all day, one per line, as YYYY-MM-DD |
| Out-of-hours welcome | What visitors see outside hours. {next_open} is replaced with the next opening time. |
After you save, the page shows whether you're open right now and, if not, when you're next open.
What changes outside hours
- Welcome: visitors see the out-of-hours welcome. For example: "Hi! Our team is away right now — we're back Monday at 9:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time. I can answer questions from our help center in the meantime, and the team will follow up when they're back."
- Messenger home screen: shows "The team is away · back Monday at 9:00 AM…".
- Expected reply time: becomes "We're back…".
- Handoffs: when a visitor asks for a person, they're told when the team is back and asked for an email so you can follow up.
- Inbox: your team sees an Outside support hours label in the inbox header.
Good to know
- A teammate who is Available in the inbox outside hours still gets conversations, with the usual "someone will be with you shortly" wording.
- Opening times are written in your time zone, and include its name.
- Hours are checked when a page loads or a message is sent. A visitor who leaves a page open across your opening time sees the change on their next page or message.
Pair support hours with Chat Notifications and Teams, so anything that comes in overnight reaches your team by Slack or email. See also Configuring the Chat AI Agent.