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Business hours tell visitors when a person will answer. Outside them, the widget says when you’re back, and a visitor writing to your team gets your away message once. The AI keeps answering at any hour.

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Set your hours

Owners and admins set hours in Settings → Inbox → Business hours. The card’s corner shows the current state: Always open (hours are off), Open now, Closed now · opens Monday at 09:00 (London time), or Closed (no open days).
1

Turn on Use business hours

While it’s off, the desk counts as always open and nothing below applies.
2

Pick a time zone

Time zone defaults to your browser’s. Every time on the card is in this zone. UTC is in the list too.
3

Set the days

Tick each day you’re open and set its opening and closing times. Each day has one span; untick a day to close it. New hours start as Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00. Pick 23:59 as the closing time to stay open until midnight. Closing must be after opening.
4

Write the away message

Away message is up to 500 characters. {when} becomes the next opening, for example on Monday at 09:00 (London time), or today at 13:00 (London time) and tomorrow at 09:00 (London time) when it’s that close.
5

Save

Press Save. The widget picks up the change on its next load.
The default away message is:
If your message doesn’t contain {when}, the desk adds We'll be back <when>. at the end. When no day is open at all, {when} becomes as soon as we can. Daylight saving time is handled: the desk works out the next opening in your time zone, including on days the clocks change.

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What visitors see

Outside your hours:
  • In the chat window, the line under your name reads We’re away · back Monday at 09:00 (London time), followed by The assistant can still help. when AI replies are on. Inside hours it shows your usual reply-time text.
  • On the island, the header reads back Monday at 09:00 (London time).
  • In a conversation with your team, an anonymous visitor without an email is asked We’re away right now. Get the reply by email? straight away, so you can follow up after they leave. See the inbox.

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The away message

The away message is an automatic message in the conversation. The desk sends it when all of these are true:
  • business hours are on and you’re closed right now,
  • the conversation is with your team, not the AI (it went to the team from the start, or the AI just handed it off),
  • no teammate has sent a reply in that conversation in the last 15 minutes.
It’s sent at most once per closed period in a conversation. If the visitor writes five messages on Saturday, they get it once; if they write again after you open and close again, they get it again.
Notes don’t count as replies here. A teammate leaving a note doesn’t stop the away message; a teammate answering the visitor does.
Your hours are also in desk.yaml under hours, so you can keep them in git; saving here updates the file. See desk.yaml.

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Effect on the AI

Business hours don’t switch the AI off. While a conversation is with the AI, it answers as usual at any hour and no away message is sent. If the AI hands off outside your hours, the visitor gets the handoff notice and then your away message, so they know when a person will reply.

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Next steps

Handoff

When the AI passes a chat to your team.

Assignment

Who gets chats that need a person.