Apple

How to schedule text messages on your iPhone using Shortcuts

Need to send a text later but afraid you’ll forget? There’s a Shortcut for that.

by
Joe Rice-Jones
March 25, 2021

Image: Apple

If you’re an iOS user, you might have gazed jealously at your Android-using friends and their ability to schedule SMS messages. I mean, you don’t want to disturb people in the middle of the night, but you might forget if you don’t write that message right now, right?

That snafu goes double if your job has anything to do with sending SMS, as there’s no quicker way to annoy a customer than by making their notifications ping at 3 AM. The thing is, there are no first-party messaging apps on iOS that let you schedule, well, anything.

Another first-party app, Shortcuts, comes to the rescue, but it’s a little involved so we’ll walk you through how to set it up.

Here’s how to set up message scheduling on iOS

Before we start, make sure you’ve got the Shortcuts app installed on your device.

Head to the Shortcuts Gallery on your iPhone, and download the Delayed Time iMessage shortcut
Tap on Get Shortcut to download and install the shortcut
Open the Shortcuts app
Find Delayed Time iMessage in the list, then tap to run it
Select the Contact you want to schedule a text for, then type out your message
Pick the time you want the message sent, then tap confirm
You’ll need to keep the Shortcuts app open, so it’s able to run in the background. You might also need to keep your iPhone unlocked, so the Shortcut can activate.

Not the easiest solution, for sure, but at least you can schedule messages with iMessage now. Maybe Apple will add the ability to schedule messages (or email, for that matter) in a future update.

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