Configure business hours

Create or select a schedule

Open https://app.message.com/settings/business-hours/. Select an existing schedule or choose New schedule. The star marks the company default. Schedules can be reused by the company, departments, agents, numbers and chat; they are not limited to three independent channel schedules.

Set timezone and weekly hours

Review the schedule’s timezone. A new schedule suggests your device timezone, but confirm that it matches the business. Edit each day’s hours and save. Changing a schedule’s timezone changes how its wall-clock hours are interpreted.

Saving a schedule does not necessarily make it the company default or assign it to a specific number. Use Make default for the company, or review the intended department/number assignment.

Add holidays

In Holidays, add each closed date and its name, then save. A holiday closes that date for the whole day. The current holiday list does not offer a date range or custom opening hours for a holiday.

Configure channel behavior

Choose what should happen after hours in the relevant channel’s settings. For phones, review the number’s after-hours action and selected greeting in Phones → Voicemail. A schedule alone does not create a custom multi-stage fallback chain.

For chat, review the widget’s offline behavior and availability. Incoming email and ticket queues are separate from phone routing; setting hours does not automatically create an email SLA promise.

Check the saved result

Refresh the page to confirm the schedule and timezone persisted. Use a test number or test site to check both an open and closed period. Confirm the actual greeting, destination and agent access. Restore any temporary changes after the test.