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Schedule calls

With Scheduling switched on, the agent proposes times from your availability, the person picks one, and Anychat books the call. The person gets a confirmation and an add-to-calendar file, your team gets an email, and, when you turn them on, the person gets a reminder before the call and the booking is mirrored into Google Calendar.

A booked call is a representative from your company phoning the person at an agreed time.

This document describes the settings. For what the capability adds to what the agent reads, see Capabilities.

Before you begin

  • Decide who takes the calls and collect their names, phone numbers, and email addresses.
  • Decide the hours calls can be booked into, and in whose time zone.

Turn scheduling on

Scheduling is on as soon as its configuration has been saved once. On an agent that has never saved it, the Capabilities card reads Off and the Hours & booking tab shows Turn on scheduling in place of Save. The defaults work, so pressing it with the hours left empty is enough.

Until then the agent is never offered the scheduling actions, whatever its Playbooks say.

Add representatives

Representatives are on the Representatives tab of Capabilities · Scheduling. Each has a name, an optional title, a phone number, and an email address.

The assigned representative is recorded on every booking and is always emailed when a booking changes.

With none configured, booking still works and calls are scheduled with "someone from our team", but the per-representative features stay off: the rep card, tap-to-call, calendar sync, and the notification email. The Capabilities page flags it.

Set availability

Everything below is on the Hours & booking tab. Anychat proposes only times you have made bookable.

Setting What it does
Timezone The time zone the agent proposes and holds slots in. New agents start in the time zone you created them from. Choose Use the person's timezone to follow whoever the agent is talking to.
Default call length Minutes per call when nothing more specific is requested.
Available hours The weekly windows calls can be booked into, such as Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00.
Blackout dates Specific dates with no availability, such as holidays and closures.
Allow same-day bookings On by default. Turn it off to make tomorrow the earliest bookable day.

Leaving available hours empty lets the agent propose any reasonable time. It still defaults to business hours, so it never offers a 3 a.m. slot. When Scheduling is set up and a Playbook uses it while no hours are set, lint raises scheduling.hours.unset, so leaving it open stays a deliberate choice.

With same-day bookings off, the agent stops offering times on the current day and answers a request for "today" with times from tomorrow onward. The current day is judged in the agent's time zone, so someone in another time zone cannot book into what is still today for your team.

The agent never double-books a representative. A time the rep already holds for anyone is removed from what the agent offers, and a booking that would land on top of an existing call is refused even when two people try for the same slot at once. The second person is shown fresh times.

Set up notifications

Anychat emails your team whenever an appointment is scheduled, rescheduled, or cancelled.

The assigned representative is always emailed. Notification recipients adds others, such as an operations alias or a manager.

The agent's public contact email is never used for these. That address is the one your customers see.

With no representative email and an empty recipients list, nobody is notified, so configure at least one of the two.

The email names the person, the time in their time zone, the representative, and any notes the agent captured.

Turn on reminders

Anychat can send the person a reminder on their channel shortly before the call.

Setting What it does
Send a pre-call reminder The switch.
Lead time (minutes) How long before the call to send it.
Attach the representative's contact card Includes a link to the rep's .vcf so the person can save the contact.
Send reminders outside safe hours On by default: a reminder goes when it is due, whatever your safe hours, because a reminder just before a call is only useful then. Turn it off to hold a reminder until safe hours open; one that would land after the call has started is not sent.
Reply playbook The Playbook a reply to the reminder opens in when no conversation is in progress.

Pick your booking Playbook as the reply playbook so a "Cancel" or "Reschedule" reply is handled with its instructions. Left empty, the reply opens in the default Playbook. A reply inside a conversation that is still going stays in that conversation's Playbook.

Every reminder offers three quick replies, Confirm, Cancel, and Reschedule, so the person can act in one tap. Confirm is acknowledged, Cancel asks for confirmation before cancelling, and Reschedule offers new times. On channels without tappable replies the person types the same words, and free text such as "something came up, I can't make it" is understood the same way.

Reminders are sent once per appointment, in the right time zone. A reminder needs no recorded messaging consent, since the person booked the call, but nobody who replied STOP receives one.

Mirror bookings into Google Calendar

Mirroring every scheduled call into a Google Calendar lets your team see bookings on a calendar they already watch. Reschedules and cancellations stay in sync.

  1. Connect a Google account at Workspace · Connections. One connection serves every agent in the workspace.
  2. On the Scheduling settings page, under Calendar, choose the account in Account and set the Calendar ID. primary is the account's default calendar. Choosing an account turns mirroring on.

If someone disconnects that account, bookings keep working but stop reaching the calendar. The agent's Scheduling card then shows Needs attention until you choose a connected account again.

Calendar recording is best-effort. When Google is unreachable or the connection lapses, the booking, the add-to-calendar file, and the team email still go through. Anychat treats its own records as the source of truth, and the Google Calendar entry as a mirror.

Booking calls over Google Meet or another video platform is not supported. Scheduling puts a representative on a phone call with the person.

What the person gets

When a call is booked, the person receives a confirmation in the conversation with an Add to calendar action. Tapping it downloads a standard .ics file they can add to Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook. Nothing needs to be connected on your side for this.

With reminders on, they also get a reminder before the call, optionally carrying the representative's contact card.

Where calls show up

The Calls page, in the agent's sidebar next to People, lists every call the agent has booked: upcoming, completed, and cancelled, with the person, the representative, and when it was booked. Calls stay on the list after they happen, so a same-day booking you did not see land is still there. Filter to Upcoming to see what is ahead, soonest first.

The People list's Scheduled Call column shows each person's next upcoming call. Once that time has passed, the most recent past call stays visible in gray.

A person's record shows their full call history with statuses.

Same-day bookings are common, since a lead who says "this morning works" can be on a call within the hour. Pair the Calls page with notification emails so someone from your team is on the line.

How a booking is recorded

Every booking runs the same six steps, however it was triggered.

  1. The representative is resolved and recorded on the appointment.
  2. The appointment is saved with a full audit history.
  3. The person's record is updated with their upcoming call.
  4. The Google Calendar event is written, when connected.
  5. Your team is emailed.
  6. The reminder is scheduled.

Steps 4 through 6 are best-effort and never block a booking.

What's next