Deliver messages at the right local time for every recipient, automatically.
How it works
Each contact now stores an IANA timezone (e.g. America/Chicago). When contact timezone mode is enabled on an inbox, outbound SMS broadcasts and campaigns use that stored timezone instead of the inbox's single timezone for two things:
- Quiet hours are evaluated against each recipient's local time.
- The scheduled send time you set is projected to the equivalent wall-clock hour in each recipient's timezone, so a 9 AM send reaches everyone at 9 AM their time.
Contacts without a resolved timezone fall back to the fallback timezone configured on the inbox.
Timezone source: When auto-detect is enabled, timezone is set automatically from the phone number's area code for contacts created manually, via CSV import, or from integrations. A contact's timezone can be changed at any time and overwritten if the contact moves.
Admin controls
| Setting | Where to find it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluate quiet hours in each contact's timezone | Inbox settings | Turns on contact timezone mode. Also lets you set a fallback timezone for contacts with no resolved timezone. |
| Auto-detect timezone | Admin → Contacts tab | Automatically sets timezone on contact create via manual entry, CSV import, or integrations. |
| Scrape and overwrite | Admin → Contacts tab | Runs a backfill that detects and overwrites timezone for all existing contacts. |
| Send at recipient's local time | Broadcast / campaign composer | Sets timezone_mode = contact for the send. Each per-timezone group gets its own scheduled workflow. |
Enabling contact timezone mode
- Go to Inbox settings and toggle Evaluate quiet hours in each contact's timezone.
- Select a fallback timezone to cover contacts with no area-code match.
- Go to Admin → Contacts and enable Auto-detect timezone.
- To backfill existing contacts, click Scrape and overwrite under the Auto-detect timezone setting.
- When composing a broadcast or campaign, check Send at recipient's local time to activate per-contact scheduling.
Setting a contact's timezone manually
When creating or editing a contact, use the Select Timezone dropdown in the contact form to set their timezone directly. If auto-detect is enabled, this field is pre-populated from the area code but can be overridden at any time.
The contact's resolved timezone is also visible in the contact detail panel under Timezone.