Notifications Schedule

Subscribers can set weekly schedules for their notifications. Messages sent outside these times will be suppressed. But critical alerts will still be delivered. You can manage schedules through API, SDK, or Dashboard. The smart workflow delivery waits for subscribers to be available.

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Contributors
  • Paweł Tymczuk

    Paweł Tymczuk

Note

Requires <Inbox /> version 3.10.1 or higher

Give your subscribers control over when they receive notifications with customizable availability schedules. Subscribers can set their preferred hours for notifications. The system will then block messages sent outside those times. This helps them balance work and life. It also makes sure they always get important alerts.

Weekly Schedule Configuration

Subscribers can create a full weekly schedule right from their inbox settings. They can pick the days and times they want to get notifications. Subscribers can set their availability from Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM. The system will then ignore notifications sent by email, push, SMS, or chat outside these hours. Time ranges are set in 30-minute increments. They follow the subscriber's time zone. For example, a user in Europe/Warsaw gets notifications only during their local hours.

Availability Preferences

Copy Schedule Across Days

With the copy feature, you can set up the same schedule for multiple days. Subscribers can set their Wednesday hours from 8 AM to 4 PM. With one click, they can easily apply those hours to Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. There is no need to configure each day individually.

Copy availability to other days

Multiple Time Ranges Per Day

Subscribers can set several availability windows for one day, which helps them manage complex schedules. For example, a person may be free for morning updates from 8 AM to 10 AM or from 1 PM to 5 PM. They won’t send notifications during lunch or meetings.

Smart Workflow Delivery

The system evaluates availability at the exact moment of delivery for each workflow step, which means notifications in multi-step workflows adapt dynamically to subscriber schedules. A workflow with a delay step could still be delivered successfully if the subscriber returns to their availability window when the delay is complete.

Smart Workflow Delivery

You can also configure digest and delay steps to automatically extend until the subscriber is back within their scheduled hours, ensuring messages are delivered when they're most likely to be seen.

Critical Notifications Always Deliver

Workflows labeled as critical—like security warnings, billing failures, or system alerts—go straight to delivery. This means urgent messages arrive right away, without any delays.

In-app notifications always come through, no matter the schedule settings. They don't interrupt subscribers, so users can check them whenever they want.

Full Management Control

Subscriber schedules can be managed through the API and SDK. You can also view and edit them directly from the Dashboard. You can set a default schedule for subscribers who haven't set their own.

Notification schedule dashboard management

This eliminates the need for migrations for existing users. The activity feed logs when notifications are missed due to scheduling limits, making it easier to fix delivery issues and understand user actions.

The new useSchedule hook in the React SDK provides the subscriber's current schedule and an update function, making it easy to create custom schedule interfaces.

Check the documentation to explore the available configurations for setting up the notification receiving schedule (subscriber availability preferences).

Improvements (2)
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