HubSpot Chatflow Availability Settings Guide
HubSpot offers flexible chatflow availability settings so you can control when visitors see live chat or bots on your website, and how conversations are routed to your team. By configuring these options correctly, you can match support hours, manage expectations, and improve your overall customer experience.
This guide walks through every availability option in the conversations inbox and chatflows tool, and explains how they interact.
Understanding HubSpot Chat Availability Modes
Availability in the conversations inbox determines when chat agents appear online or offline, and how the system reacts if no one is available. In HubSpot, you can combine multiple rules to cover different teams and schedules.
Key Availability Components in HubSpot
- Team availability: Whether any team member is considered available to accept chats.
- Working hours: Time windows when you want to offer live chat.
- Offline behavior: What visitors see when no one is available.
- Presence and status: How individual user settings affect overall team availability.
Before updating chatflows, make sure you understand how these elements are configured in your inbox settings.
Accessing Availability Settings in HubSpot
To manage chat availability, you need to open the conversations inbox and then adjust the corresponding options. The exact wording and layout may vary slightly depending on your HubSpot subscription and interface updates.
Steps to Open the Conversations Inbox
- Sign in to your HubSpot account.
- Navigate to Conversations > Inbox from the main navigation menu.
- Select the inbox that is connected to your chatflows.
- Open the inbox settings to find availability and routing options.
Any updates here will influence how your chatflows behave for incoming visitors.
Configuring Team Availability in HubSpot
Team availability settings define whether your chat channel appears online or offline. HubSpot can calculate availability automatically based on the status of users, or you can control it manually.
Automatic Team Availability
When you use automatic availability, the system checks if at least one team member is available to accept chats. If someone is active and allowed to receive chats, your chatflows can present live chat options to visitors.
Automatic availability typically considers:
- User chat status (such as available or away).
- Whether a user is assigned to the inbox or specific channel.
- Any capacity or load settings that limit concurrent chats.
If no one meets the automatic criteria, the channel is treated as offline.
Manual Team Availability
With manual availability, you explicitly set the inbox to online or offline. This is useful if you want to control visibility regardless of individual user status.
Common manual approaches include:
- Setting the inbox to online during office hours and offline outside those hours.
- Temporarily switching to offline for team meetings or holidays.
- Using manual offline mode during major maintenance or system updates.
When you change this setting, your chatflows immediately update to reflect the new status.
Setting Working Hours for HubSpot Chatflows
Working hours ensure that HubSpot only displays live chat options when your team is available, and shows a different experience at other times. You can set global hours for an inbox or customize availability further with routing rules.
Defining Standard Working Hours
- Open the selected conversations inbox.
- Go to the availability or working hours section.
- Enable the option to use working hours.
- Choose your timezone.
- Set daily opening and closing times for each day you operate.
Outside these hours, the system can automatically treat your channel as offline or show a dedicated after-hours message.
Holiday and Exception Handling in HubSpot
Depending on your plan, you may also configure exceptions for holidays and special events. When exceptions are active, your normal working hours are overridden, and the channel behaves as offline or follows your custom rules.
- Create entries for public holidays or company-wide breaks.
- Mark days when the team is not available for live chat.
- Confirm how chatflows should behave for those dates.
Choosing Offline Behavior for HubSpot Chatflows
When no one is available, you need clear rules for what visitors see. HubSpot lets you control the offline experience separately from standard live chat behavior.
Common Offline Options in HubSpot
- Show an offline message only, without chat input.
- Display an email capture form or simple contact form.
- Offer a chatbot that collects details for follow-up.
- Hide the chat launcher entirely during offline periods.
Select the approach that best fits your response capacity and customer expectations. Offline settings often appear within the chatflow editor under availability or display rules.
Configuring Offline Welcome Messages
You can customize the initial text visitors see when the channel is offline. In HubSpot, this typically includes:
- A short explanation that agents are unavailable.
- Expected response time once your team returns.
- A request for name, email, and message details.
Clear offline messaging helps reduce frustration and improves lead collection for follow-up.
Controlling Chatflow Display Rules in HubSpot
Beyond working hours and team availability, you can fine-tune when individual chatflows appear on your site. HubSpot gives you options based on page URLs, visitor behavior, and availability conditions.
Targeting Specific Pages and Conditions
Inside the chatflow editor, you can set rules such as:
- Show on all pages or only selected URLs.
- Exclude certain sections, such as login or checkout pages.
- Trigger after a delay or scroll depth.
- Display only when the team is available or always show a bot.
Align these settings with your inbox availability so visitors see the correct live chat or offline options.
Using Bots When Agents Are Unavailable
Some teams use a bot to cover gaps in live support. Within HubSpot chatflows, you can design a bot that appears only when agents are offline, or that works alongside agents during peak hours.
Typical after-hours bot tasks include:
- Answering common questions with a knowledge base.
- Gathering contact details for follow-up.
- Qualifying leads before they speak with sales.
Make sure the bot’s triggers and conditions reference your availability settings so the transition from live chat to bot is smooth.
Testing and Monitoring HubSpot Availability Behavior
After updating availability settings, always test your configuration to ensure visitors see the correct experience on your site.
How to Test Availability Changes
- Open your website in an incognito or private browser window.
- Visit a page where the chatflow should display.
- Check the behavior during working hours and outside working hours.
- Switch the inbox between online and offline to verify changes in real time.
- Confirm that bots and offline forms appear correctly when no one is available.
Monitor incoming conversations to see if volume and response times align with your goals.
Troubleshooting HubSpot Chatflow Availability
If your chatflow is not showing as expected, verify the following:
- Team members are correctly assigned to the inbox and set to available.
- Working hours match your actual schedule and timezone.
- Page targeting rules are not too restrictive.
- Offline conditions are not overriding live chat settings.
For detailed, product-specific instructions, consult the official HubSpot documentation on chatflow availability settings at this help article.
Next Steps and Additional Resources
Well-configured availability ensures that your chat experience in HubSpot is consistent, predictable, and aligned with your team’s capacity. Review your settings regularly, especially after staffing or schedule changes.
For broader strategy support, optimization advice, or implementation help around HubSpot and other customer experience tools, you can explore additional resources at Consultevo.
By combining clear availability rules, thoughtful offline experiences, and targeted chatflows, you can use HubSpot to deliver responsive, reliable support to your website visitors at all times.
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