Avoiding Night-Time Texts
This feature helps send large SMS marketing campaigns without waking anyone up at 11 PM. Quiet hours pause marketing messages during selected times and automatically resume sending when the allowed window opens again.
SMS marketing is available on the Appointible Pro plan. If needed, upgrade the subscription in Billing first, then adjust the sending rules.
Opening SMS settings
Quiet hours live with the rest of the SMS sending rules, in Settings.
With a phone number of your own, the page shows three cards: Phone numbers, Sending rules and Consent keywords. Quiet hours is the first row of Sending rules.
Info
With only Appointible's shared numbers, the page shows the Phone numbers card alone, and there are no sending rules to set.
Setting quiet hours
Quiet hours define when SMS marketing messages are not allowed to send. Messages that fall inside this window will wait and send after quiet hours end, within the same day if possible.
- On the Sending rules card, click Update settings.
- Set Avoid sending campaign messages between to the window that fits local regulations and common sense. For example, 8:00 PM to 9:00 AM. The window has to start between 2:00 PM and 9:00 PM and end between 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM.
- Click Save.
Info
The window is applied in the client's own time zone, not the business's. A client in another time zone is protected by their own local night, so one setting covers a client list spread across several zones.
All the sending rules are edited in this one dialog and saved together, so there is a single Save rather than a separate one per setting.
How quiet hours affect campaigns
Once quiet hours are set, SMS marketing behaves a bit like a polite night owl – always awake, but waiting for a decent hour to speak up.
- Campaigns created in Campaigns or Campaigns All will respect quiet hours automatically.
- If a campaign is scheduled to send during quiet hours, messages will be delayed until the next allowed time window.
Reminders and confirmations are not held back. Quiet hours apply to campaign messages. An appointment reminder still goes out on time, because a reminder that arrives after the appointment is worse than one that arrives late in the evening.
If messages still seem to go out at odd times, double-check:
- The scheduled time of the campaign in Campaigns.
- Whether the message is a reminder or confirmation rather than a campaign — only campaigns wait.
Related settings
While adjusting quiet hours, it can help to review the other rows on the same card in SMS settings:
- Smart sending – skips anyone who has already had a campaign message in the last set number of hours.
- Opt-out language and the Consent keywords card – manage how clients subscribe and unsubscribe from SMS marketing.
Keeping quiet hours, smart sending, and consent settings aligned makes SMS campaigns both effective and respectful of everyone's sleep.