What is SMS Quiet Hours?

SMS Quiet Hours refer to the time periods during which businesses are restricted from sending marketing text messages to consumers. Under TCPA guidelines and carrier policies, marketing texts should not be sent before 8 AM or after 9 PM in the recipient's local time zone.

Quiet hours exist to protect consumers from intrusive messages during early morning and late evening hours. While the TCPA doesn't specify exact quiet hour windows for texts (the 8 AM–9 PM guideline comes from FCC rulings on telemarketing calls that are widely applied to SMS), industry best practice and carrier enforcement treat these windows as binding.

Some states have their own, more restrictive quiet hours. Florida, for example, restricts marketing communications before 8 AM and after 8 PM. Oklahoma restricts before 8 AM and after 8 PM. SMS platforms must account for state-level rules in addition to federal guidelines.

SMS platforms enforce quiet hours by queuing messages that would be sent during restricted windows and delivering them when the window opens. If a brand schedules a campaign at 10 PM Eastern, recipients in the Eastern time zone won't receive it until 8 AM the next morning. Recipients in Pacific time (where it's 7 PM) would receive it immediately.

This time-zone awareness requires the platform to know each subscriber's local time zone — typically inferred from their area code or set during registration. Messages are held per-recipient based on their local time.

Transactional messages (order confirmations, shipping updates) are generally exempt from quiet hours, as they're informational rather than promotional. However, best practice is to avoid unnecessary late-night messages even for transactional content.

Violating quiet hours is both a legal risk and a subscriber experience issue. From a legal standpoint, sending during restricted hours can contribute to TCPA complaints and potential litigation. From an experience standpoint, a marketing text at 11 PM feels invasive and drives opt-outs.

For SMS commerce, quiet hours have practical implications for time-sensitive events like drops. If you schedule a drop at 8 PM Eastern, subscribers in Hawaii (where it's 3 PM) get it immediately, while some East Coast subscribers might be queued. Planning drops around quiet hours ensures your entire list can participate.

Good SMS platforms handle quiet hours automatically — you schedule the send, and the platform manages delivery timing per subscriber based on their time zone.