Spring '25 added blockout windows to Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced Editions (now Marketing Cloud Next): admins can restrict SMS and WhatsApp sending by defined time periods, or by the recipient's time zone. It is an admin setting, not something each campaign has to remember.

Product

Marketing Cloud Next

Edition

Advanced and Growth

Topic

SMS

Confidence

Medium - shown in a credible source

Last verified

26 September 2026

Who this applies to

• Admins of Marketing Cloud Next orgs that send SMS or WhatsApp
• Both editions: the Spring '25 notes we checked cover Growth and Advanced
• SMS and WhatsApp only. The source does not describe blockout windows for email or push

Why it matters

A late-night text is the fastest way to turn a customer into a complaint, and complaints are what carriers and regulators look at. Leaving sending hours to each campaign means the one built in a hurry, or by someone new, is the one that goes out at the wrong time. A blockout window is the guardrail that does not depend on anyone remembering.

Try it

1. Decide the hours in which you are comfortable sending a text to a customer. Write them down as local time for the recipient, not for the office.
2. In Setup for the marketing app, configure the blockout window for SMS and WhatsApp using those hours, and choose recipient time zone if your audience spans more than one.
3. Send a test message scheduled inside the window and one scheduled inside the blocked period, and confirm what happens to the blocked one in your org (held, rescheduled or dropped). The source does not state the behaviour, so check it.
4. Add the window to your messaging governance note so campaign builders know it exists and do not build their own workaround.
5. Review the window when you expand to a new country. A window that suits Sydney may not suit Perth, let alone Singapore.

Example use case

A national retailer with customers in every Australian time zone sets a blockout window that permits SMS only between 9am and 7pm recipient-local time. A flash-sale text scheduled for 8am AEST on the east coast is held for Perth customers until 9am AWST, and the Perth complaints the team used to field every promotion stop.

Prerequisites, limitations and risks

• Marketing Cloud Next (Growth or Advanced) with SMS or WhatsApp provisioned. SMS requires the Message Credits SMS add-on per the Spring '25 notes
• Recipient time zone blocking depends on the org knowing the recipient's time zone. Check where that value comes from in your data model before relying on it
• What happens to a message that hits the window (held until it opens, or not sent) is not stated in our source. Test it
• Local rules on messaging hours vary by country. The window is a tool for complying with them, not a substitute for knowing them

Documented behaviour above comes from the sources listed below. Availability varies by edition, SKU and region - confirm entitlements in your own org before you rely on a feature.

Sources

• Spring '25 release notes Salesforce Help, 1 February 2025