After-hours WhatsApp replies can acknowledge a customer while your team is away and help them with straightforward questions. In Momo Business, Send outside business hours lets an eligible AI agent send replies when the messaging schedule is closed and prepare drafts when it is open.
The setting controls when an AI reply may be sent. It does not, by itself, create a fixed away message, confirm staff availability or schedule a morning callback.
Prepare the account and its opening hours
You need a working WhatsApp account, access to its automation settings, an enabled workspace AI agent and a separate number for testing. Confirm that the agent's Thinking Engine is enabled and available for Inbox. Give a teammate responsibility for unanswered requests when the business reopens.
Before changing the reply behavior, have your administrator or Momo support confirm the messaging business schedule used by this account, including its timezone, weekly opening slots and holidays. The reply settings panel does not contain an opening-hours editor.
The schedule is resolved in this order: the connected messaging channel's assigned schedule, then the workspace's active default schedule. If neither exists, the account is treated as always open, so this mode produces drafts instead of after-hours automatic replies. A separate call-routing or IVR schedule is not evidence that WhatsApp has the same schedule.
For a Dar es Salaam shop, an example is Monday to Friday, 08:00–17:00, in Africa/Dar_es_Salaam, with actual closure dates recorded. Replace those times with your hours. Holidays close the whole listed day. For overnight opening, have the administrator verify both calendar days rather than assume one time range crosses midnight.
Prepare an answer that sets the right expectation
Use the agent's instructions and Knowledge library to supply verified hours, locations and ordinary service policies. Write the expected handling clearly:
“Answer questions about our published collection hours and location. When staff are unavailable, explain that the team will review requests during opening hours. Do not promise stock, delivery dates or a callback time unless confirmed information supports it. Ask a person to handle exceptions.”
This is sample instruction text, not an automatic connection to a staff calendar. Keep any opening-hours document consistent with the configured messaging schedule. If the agent lacks reliable context about whether the business is currently open, use wording that remains accurate at any time, such as “Our team reviews requests Monday to Friday, 08:00–17:00.”
Follow the knowledge setup guide to confirm that sources are ready and attached to the intended agent.
Save the after-hours behavior
- Open Accounts → Automations, select the WhatsApp account and confirm the business identity.
- Choose AI agent and select the prepared agent. Use Refresh choices if you enabled it in another tab.
- Under Reply behavior, select Send outside business hours.
- Open Reply timing & limits. Review Pause after a human reply, Combine incoming messages and Consecutive reply limit. Use values that suit your coverage; a human pause can intentionally delay automation after a colleague responds.
- Select Save account automation and check the saved summary.
The account default applies to one-to-one chats. WhatsApp group chats do not run this automation. Existing flow sessions can finish after an account-default change, so use a fresh test conversation or inspect its current responder.
Test opening time, closing time and exceptions
In Inbox, make sure the test chat uses Use account default and is unassigned. Send “Where can I collect my order?” during an opening period. The expected result is an AI draft waiting for review. Repeat in a closed period: an eligible reply should now be sent automatically, subject to the normal channel and AI limits.
Test a manually handled chat separately. Handle this chat manually takes priority over the account setting. An assigned conversation also receives drafts unless someone explicitly chooses Let AI handle this chat. That explicit AI choice enables automatic handling for that chat and bypasses the account's time-based reply mode; do not use it to test after-hours scheduling.
Use a test account or an agreed test window for boundary checks. Avoid changing a shared live schedule just to make a test pass. Check the message on the receiving phone as well as in Inbox, and test a holiday if your business uses holiday closures.
If the result is different
If every reply is a draft, first confirm that a messaging schedule exists, that the current time is closed in its timezone and that the chat is unassigned. If nothing appears, inspect the responder override, human pause, agent availability and account connection. A failed send can also leave a draft for the team.
If replies continue unexpectedly, choose manual handling for the affected chat while you review its configuration. The account and chat automation guide explains the scope of each control. Each morning, a named teammate should review overnight conversations, correct inaccurate expectations and take ownership of requests that still need a person.