How to set the hours when Conversation AI replies and what it does after hours
Turn on Working Hours in Settings › Labs. Then, in AI Agents › Conversation AI, open the agent › Deploy tab › Working Hours, turn on Active Hours, pick the channels, timezone, days and times, and the after-hours options (auto-reply, team alert, tag, follow-up). Save.
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Before you start
- Have the agent created in AI Agents › Conversation AI with its channels connected.
- The feature lives in Labs: you need to enable it before it appears on the agent.
- Hours are set per agent: different agents can follow different schedules.
Where to find it
AI Agents › Conversation AI › Agents List › (open the agent) › Deploy › Working Hours
Step by step
Enable the feature
- Open Settings › Labs.
- Search for Working Hours and turn it on.
Set the agent's hours
- Open AI Agents › Conversation AI › Agents List and click the agent.
- Open the Deploy tab and choose Working Hours.
- Turn on Active Hours.
- Pick the channels that follow the schedule (SMS, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, chat widget, live chat, TikTok). Unselected channels keep replying as before.
- Choose the timezone: the contact's or your business's.
- Select the days and set each day's start and end time. Add more than one time slot on a day for breaks or split shifts.
Decide what happens after hours
- Continue Ongoing Conversations: the AI finishes a conversation that started during working hours, until it goes inactive.
- Off-Hours Auto-Reply: write the message the customer receives (for example, "Thanks for your message, we reply from 9 AM").
- Team Notifications: choose who is alerted when a message arrives after hours.
- Contact Tags: apply a tag to anyone who writes after hours (useful for lists and workflows).
- Follow Up When Business Hours Resume: the AI picks the contact back up when hours resume, if nobody replied in the meantime.
- Review everything and click Save.
Tips
- Use the contact's timezone if you serve customers in different countries; use the business timezone if everyone is in the same one.
- In Suggestive Mode, the AI keeps suggesting replies to your team after hours; it just doesn't send them.
- Your team can manually activate the agent on an after-hours conversation from the conversation panel when there's an exception.
Common problems
- I don't see the Working Hours option on the agent → The feature isn't enabled in Settings › Labs. Turn it on and go back to the Deploy tab.
- The AI replied after hours → The channel isn't selected in the schedule, or the conversation started during hours with Continue Ongoing Conversations on. Review the channels and the option.
- The AI stopped mid-conversation at closing time → Turn on Continue Ongoing Conversations.
- Customers get no reply at all at night → Turn on the Off-Hours Auto-Reply and write the message.
Frequently asked questions
I also have Followup Hours set in Advanced Follow-Up. Which one wins?
For channels included in Working Hours, the agent's Working Hours take priority.
What if I don't turn on Working Hours?
The agent keeps replying at any time, as it was configured.
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