You Can Schedule a Text Message to Send Later on Your Smartphone

Sometimes, you need to send a text message to someone, but it isn’t the right time to do so. Maybe they’re in a different time zone than you, and sending a text would disturb them. Maybe they need the information you’re sending at a specific time, so you have to wait until then to shoot the message over. For years, the only real option was to bide your time until it was appropriate to send the message. Perhaps you’d even set an alarm on your phone to remind you to send it.

These days, however, there’s no reason to do that, or to risk forgetting to send the message at a later time. Instead, you can simply schedule the text message to send whenever you want. This works on any modern smartphone platform, so whether you have an iPhone or an Android, you can schedule your text and forget about it until your recipient responds.

How to schedule texts on iPhone

To schedule a text on an iPhone, open the Messages app, tap a chat, then tap the (+) to the left of the text field. Here, choose “Send Later.” You’ll see a sample send time appear in a dotted blue bubble above the text field (e.g. Tomorrow 9:00 AM.) If you tap the bubble, you can choose the specific date and time you want the message sent, up to two weeks in the future. Once you set the send time, tap the text field and type out your message, then tap the send button. Rather than send the message, iOS will place it in the text thread in a shaded, dotted blue bubble. Above this, you’ll see “Send Later,” which the date and time you set. Choose “Edit” to adjust the send time, any time before the message actually sends.

How to schedule texts on Android

Whether you have a Samsung Galaxy or a Google Pixel phone, scheduling messages should be just about the same on all modern Android devices. Just long-press the send button, rather than tap it, and you should see similar schedule controls appear.