How To Schedule A Text Message On An iPhone

It’s easy to schedule a delayed text on your iPhone. You likely already have the “Shortcuts” app to do it installed without realizing it. If not, we’ll tell you how. All the steps are listed below, easy-peasy. Meanwhile, if you’re having problems with iMessage? Here’s how to fix the iMessage signed out error.

First step: Find or download the shortcuts app

The shortcuts app comes preinstalled on newer iPhones. You may even have it already and not realize it. If your phone is newer, do a quick search of your apps. It looks like this:

If you don’t already have it, you can download the app for free at the Apple Store. Keep in mind it is only compatible with iOS 12.0 or later.

Steps to schedule a text message

Start by opening up your Shortcuts App.

Go to automation

The first screen you’ll see looks like this:

As you can see, there are a lot of distracting options but for the purposes of this tutorial just look at the bottom and tap “automation.” 

Create personal automation

Tap on the blue “create personal automation tab” as shown above:

Tap time of day

Doing this takes you to a menu with a few options to choose from. You can select the exact time or you can be vague, such as “sunrise,” or “sunset.” You will also use this menu to select whether it repeats daily, weekly, or monthly. You can choose the exact day of the week under the weekly option and the date of the month under the monthly option. When you’ve made your selections, tap “next.”

Actions Menu

You’ll find yourself in the menu with “Actions,” at the top of the screen. You can tap the “add action,” option but in all likelihood you’ll have “send message,” already optional under suggestions.

If you do select “add action,” you’ll find the “send message” easily and you can select your contact from there if you wish.

Choose your message and recipients

From here you’ll see a Send “message” to Recipients. By tapping on the word “message” you can then enter whatever you want your text to say. Tap on the “recipients” to fill in who you want to receive the message. This will be easier if they’re already a contact in your phone as it will autofill once you start putting in their name. Once satisfied, tap “next.” If you have multiple contacts you need to access, here’s how to create a contact group on your iPhone.

Ask before running

You can toggle the “ask before running,” button if you want things to run automatically without your involvement. Either way, push “done,” when you’re finished.

Deleting your automation

Whether you messed something up or you don’t need your automation to run anymore, you can delete it easily. Just go to the automation and swipe from right to left. A “delete” option will appear, helping you easily fix mistakes. On that note, if you’re ever having problems or bugs, here’s how to reset network settings on your iPhone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can You Schedule an iMessage?

Yes and no. No, in that you can’t just do a one and done single scheduled iMessage, at least not without a third party app, of which there are many. You can use the method covered already via the Shortcuts app to schedule your message and then simply delete the automation once it’s been sent. That’s a simple work around. If you have regular needs for scheduling texts, however, you’ll probably want a third party app to automate things. Some of these will be free but many will have fees or recurring payments. If you have business needs for scheduled texts, it might just be worth it.

Is it possible to cancel or edit a scheduled text message?

If it’s through a third party app, they’ll probably have a sophisticated system for these kinds of edits. However, if you go through the Shortcuts app, here’s how it works:

Let’s say you already set up your automated scheduled message and you need to edit the message. Go back into your Shortcuts app and then down to the automation icon at the bottom of the screen, just like in the earlier instructions.

You’ll see your saved automation under “Personal.” Tap on the arrow on the right side of this.

From there you’ll find yourself in the “Edit Automation,” screen.

There you can select “when,” to adjust the times or “do,” to see your message at which point you’ll be in the “Actions,” screen. From there you can easily edit the message itself or who it goes to.

Once you’ve made your edits, just use the < symbol at the top left next to “edit automation,” to go back a screen to the “edit automation,” section. Then you just tap “done.”

Bam. You’ve done it. You can close the app and go about your life. What you DON’T want to do is this:

See that? That little blue triangular arrow on the bottom right? Don’t tap that. Why? Because it will send the message you’ve saved, instantly. If you push it again and again and again? You may end up with the following conversation in which the poor recipient was very confused as to why I kept spamming them with, “hi.”

“Hi,” was the test text I was using to experiment with. By pushing that little triangle button you actually end up instantly sending the text to that person, no matter when it was scheduled for. Every time you press it. You have been warned…

Are there any privacy concerns when scheduling text messages?

The recipient won’t know that the texts sent to them were prescheduled, so in that way you are protected. However, the bigger issue is texts in general and their overall lack of security. Apple is currently working on increasing privacy measures, something it has historically been a bit lax with. Here’s an article to illustrate that, all about the security risk between Android and iMessages.

When it comes to your phone, there are several ways you could be at risk for privacy concerns, especially when it comes to your texts. You need to be aware of who you’re texting and if they can be trusted. You need to have security measures in place, such as a strong passcode or facial recognition to access your phone. Lock your screen when you’re not using your phone.

If you’re truly concerned, there are lots of privacy protections you can put into place, including automatic deletion of texts after reading, encryption options, and even extra sign in security measures. Here’s a very helpful source all about Apple’s legal privacy practices for text messages.

Can I schedule text messages on older iPhone models?

That depends. If you’re hoping to use the Shortcuts app, you’ll need to use an iPhone model that will support iOS 12 or higher. Otherwise, there may still be some third party apps that will work with your older phone model, but you may have to pay for them.

Conclusion

Scheduling a text message from your iPhone is easy if your needs are simple. The Shortcuts app is free and fairly versatile while also being intuitive. That said, if you have more complex needs or an older device, you will want to find a good third party scheduling app. There are plenty of them worth looking into.