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Quiet hours: reach people at a decent hour in their own time

Automations, scheduled messages and announcements wait for 8 AM–9 PM where each person is, or their state’s stricter hours. What that means, how their time is worked out, and when to turn it off.

Miss Blue teamUpdated 6 min read

What quiet hours are

Quiet hours keep each campaign message to a decent hour in the recipient’s own time: 8 AM to 9 PM, the federal rule for marketing calls and texts, or tighter where their state requires it. A message that comes due during their night is held until their morning and then goes; it is not dropped.

It is on by default for every automation, scheduled message and announcement, including ones made before the setting existed. A scheduled message or an announcement has a Quiet hours checkbox if you need to turn it off; an automation can choose My own hours instead.

What it applies to

Three kinds of message keep to quiet hours, listed below. Messages you type in a conversation, replies you send by hand, and messages your own integration sends through the messages API are never held: those are yours to time.

  • Automations: every message a flow sends, the first and each follow-up, unless the flow uses its own hours instead. An “Only if they have not replied” step right before a held message is asked when it goes, so a reply overnight still stops it.
  • Scheduled messages: a time that is night where the recipient is goes at their morning instead. The list shows when it will really go, marked “their morning”, and keeps the time you picked.
  • Announcements: people who are awake get it now, and everybody else as their morning comes. The announcement shows Sending until the last person has had theirs.

How we know what time it is for them

From their phone number. A US or Canadian area code gives the state or province and its time zone; an area code that covers two zones keeps to the hours open in both. A number from another country is read by its country code.

Somebody we cannot place — an iMessage email address, or a brand-new area code — is kept to the hours open across the continental US: 8 AM Pacific to 9 PM Eastern.

An area code says where a number came from, not where its owner is tonight. Somebody who moved and kept their number is messaged by the hours of where it came from. It is the best signal a number carries, and the one the state laws themselves presume.

States with stricter hours

Everywhere else it is 8 AM to 9 PM every day. These states allow less, and a holiday means a federal holiday or one the state names:

  • 8 AM–8 PM: Florida, Oklahoma, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming.
  • 9 AM–8 PM: Connecticut, Nevada.
  • 9 AM–9 PM: Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Puerto Rico.
  • 10 AM–9 PM: Kentucky.
  • Texas: 9 AM–9 PM, and noon–9 PM on Sunday.
  • South Dakota: 9 AM–9 PM, never on Sunday.
  • Pennsylvania: 9 AM–7 PM, never on Sunday or a holiday.
  • Alabama and Louisiana: 8 AM–8 PM, never on Sunday or a holiday (Louisiana’s include Mardi Gras and Good Friday).
  • Mississippi: 8 AM–8 PM Central Standard Time, so 9 AM–8 PM while the clocks are forward, never on Sunday or a holiday.
  • Utah: 8 AM–9 PM, never on Sunday or a holiday.
  • Rhode Island: 9 AM–6 PM on weekdays, 10 AM–5 PM on Saturday, never on Sunday or a holiday.

Somebody writing to you right now still gets an answer

An automation’s message to somebody who wrote to your line within the last hour is not held for quiet hours. If a customer texts HOURS at 10:30 PM, they asked for the answer then, and holding it until morning would fail them rather than protect them.

Sending hours you set on the automation itself still apply. A follow-up days later is held as usual: it is no longer an answer to something they just sent.

When to turn it off

Some messages belong outside these hours: an alert to your own on-call team, a reminder somebody asked to receive at 6 AM, a message to another business’s line. Leaving quiet hours is your decision about that message, and you are responsible for following the texting laws where each person is.

Through the API, send "quiet_hours": false when you create a scheduled message or an announcement. An automation with send_hours uses those instead of quiet hours. Absent means on.

  1. On a scheduled message or an announcement, untick Quiet hours.
  2. On an automation, under When it sends, choose My own hours and set the hours, time zone and days it may send.
  3. Save or send as usual. Only that one is affected; everything else keeps its quiet hours.

If something has not gone yet

A scheduled message showing “their morning”, an announcement still Sending after most people have it, or an automation run waiting until a morning time are usually quiet hours doing their job. An automation’s People tab shows when each person hears next and what they are waiting for. Each goes on its own within a couple of minutes of the recipient’s window opening; there is nothing to resend.

Rarely, a message is still waiting on a busy or offline line when the person’s evening ends. That copy is cancelled, and shows in the conversation as “Cancelled before it was sent”, and a fresh one goes in their morning by itself. Do not resend it.

Quiet hours decide when, not whether. Opt-outs, blocks and new-contact limits apply as usual, and quiet hours are not a substitute for having permission to message somebody. This article describes how the product behaves; it is not legal advice.