Choose how an individual number answers outside its saved business hours. During business hours, or while this feature is off, the number keeps its normal team, group, or AI receptionist routing.

What you’ll see

The After Hours page with no connected numbers yet. Buy a number in My Numbers before you set closed-hours answering.

Before you start

You need a connected number and owner/administrator access to change its after-hours configuration. AI answering requires appropriate AI readiness; forwarding requires a valid authorized external destination. The Demo Account has no active number, so this workflow can be explained from source but not demonstrated as a working call route.

Review and edit

  1. Open Settings → Phone → After Hours and select Phone number. Confirm you are editing the intended line; settings belong to that number.
  2. Inspect Use after-hours answering. Enabling it in a draft is not the final save, but saving an enabled configuration changes real incoming-call handling.
  3. Under Business hours, choose Open on, Opens, Closes, and Time zone. Use the business's intended timezone and review days carefully rather than relying on your browser location.
  4. Review Outside business hours. If forwarding, enter Forward to in international format; the interface requires an external mobile or other outside number, not one of the business numbers. Review Voicemail greeting or Use the standard greeting as appropriate.
  5. Use Save After Hours when authorized. Reopen that same number and check the stored schedule and behavior. Save or Discard changes before switching to another number.

Check the result and recover

A saved schedule confirms configuration, not that a caller heard the intended greeting. The interface describes voicemail fallback when AI is unavailable or a forwarded call is unanswered. Actual fallback behavior needs a separately approved controlled call.

If configuration fails to load, use Try again before editing. Unexpected routing may come from the timezone, business-day choice, or the normal inbound route used inside hours. Keep outbound Calling Rotation hours separate from this inbound answering schedule.

More guides

Communication, Settings overview.

Screenshots

The screenshot for this guide is shown above, under “What you’ll see”.