# Availability and reply time

> Set your live chat hours and reply time, and see what visitors are shown when your team is away.

Source: https://brandwise.ai/help/live-chat/availability-and-reply-time
Last updated: 2026-09-30

Tell visitors when your team is around and how quickly you usually reply, so they know what to expect. Go to **Settings > Live Chat** and open the **Availability** tab. Click **Save changes** when you're done.

## Set your hours

Under **When you are available**, choose one:

- **Always**: the widget always shows your team as available. This is the default.
- **Set hours**: pick your **Timezone**, then switch each day on or off and choose its opening and closing times.

With **Set hours** you can:

- Click the plus icon to add another stretch to a day, for example to split it around a lunch break.
- Click the copy icon on a day to copy its hours to other days.

## Set your reply time

Under **What visitors are told**, choose a **Reply time**: **A few minutes**, **Under an hour**, **A few hours**, **Within a day**, or **A number of minutes** (up to 120). This is what you tell visitors, not something Brandwise measures, so pick what your team can usually manage.

While your team is available, visitors see it:

- **In the opening message**, after their first message, for example "Our team typically replies in a few minutes".
- **In the chat header**, for example "Typically replies in a few minutes". This doesn't show if you chose a number of minutes.

The page shows a preview of both. When AI replies are on, the reply time isn't shown until a chat is handed to your team.

## What visitors see when you're away

Outside your hours, the chat header says your team is away and when you're back, for example "Away · back tomorrow at 9:00 AM". Times are shown in the visitor's own timezone.

When a visitor writes while you're away, a note appears under their first message saying when you'll be back, and asks for their email. If a teammate replies anyway, the header shows your team as present again for a short while.

## Replies by email

Visitors can leave their email in the chat. The widget asks after their first message and keeps a small reminder above the message box.

If you've [connected a mailbox](https://brandwise.ai/help/email/connect-your-mailbox), visitors who leave their email get your replies by email when they've left the chat. If they reply to that email, their answer comes back into the same chat in your inbox.

> **Warning:** Without a connected mailbox, visitors who close the page won't get your replies. The live chat inbox shows a banner until you connect one.