The Quiet Hours feature lets you define your business hours and automatically send a personalized WhatsApp message to customers who contact you outside those hours.
It is the perfect tool to reassure customers that their request has been received while managing their expectations about your response time.
To avoid conflicting messages, Kanal follows a strict hierarchy before sending an "outside business hours" reply. Quiet Hours only kick in if nothing else has handled the message:
Keyword automations: Kanal first checks whether the customer's message matches a specific trigger (e.g. "PROMO" or "SUPPORT").
AI Agent: If no keyword is detected, Kanal checks whether the AI Agent is enabled and able to answer the question.
Business hours check: If neither the automation nor the AI stepped in, Kanal checks whether you are currently outside your business hours.
Trigger: If you are closed, the Quiet Hours automation fires.
To keep the experience smooth, the automation fires only once per closed period. If a customer sends you three messages on Sunday, they will receive the automatic message only once.
Before creating the automation, define your working hours:
Go to the Settings section.
Click Business Hours.
Turn on the Enable business hours toggle.
For each day of the week:
Enable or disable the day (if a day is disabled, you are considered closed all day).
Add your time slots (e.g. 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM then 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM to account for a lunch break).
Use the Add a slot button to stack multiple time ranges within the same day.
Click Save.
Important note: Business hours are based on the time zone set in Settings > General. Make sure it matches your location.
Once your hours are set, create the reply flow:
Go to the Automations section.
Click Create Automation.
Select the trigger: Quiet Hours.
Name your automation (e.g. "After-hours auto-reply").
Add a Send a message node to write your reply.
Sample message:
"Hi {{recipient.name}}! 👋 Thanks for your message. Our team is currently outside business hours. We will get back to you as soon as we reopen. Talk soon!"
For power users, you can use the business_hours.is_open variable inside a Condition node in any flow. This lets you build different behaviors (for example, routing to the AI when you are open, or to a holding message when you are closed).
Do Quiet Hours replace the AI Agent? No. The AI Agent keeps priority when it is enabled and eligible to answer. Quiet Hours act as a safety net when the AI does not step in.
Can I have different hours each day? Yes. You have full freedom to configure each day of the week independently, with as many slots as you need.
What happens if a customer keeps messaging that same evening? As explained above, the customer receives only one message per closed period. The automation can fire again only during your next closed period (the next evening or the next weekend).
Where do I set the time zone? The time zone is a global setting located in Settings > General. It affects both your business hours and your campaign scheduling.
