Have you ever composed a text message and thought, “I should send this later”? Maybe you want to reply to a message late at night or during someone’s work day but you worry you’ll disturb the recipient, so you don’t send it. And then when later comes, you forget all about it?
It’s happened to us all.
Also: 5 simple ways to improve your Android phone security today
Fortunately, scheduling texts on Android is very simple. (The same can’t be said of iOS – for now.) Here’s everything you need to know to up your Android texting game without interrupting anything.
How to schedule text messages on Android
What you’ll need: The only things you’ll need to make this work are an Android device with a data plan (for the sending of texts). The feature is found in Android Messages, which is pre-installed on all Android phones, so there are no apps to install. It’s all there, ready to go.
The first thing to do is unlock your Android phone and open the Messages app.
For this, you can either create a new chat (by tapping the Start chat button) or open a pre-existing chat. If you create a new chat, you’ll then select the recipient as you normally would.
Start composing a new chat or open a pre-existing chat.
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On the resulting window, type the message you want to send.
Start typing the message you want to schedule.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
If you want a custom date/time for sending, tap Pick date and time.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
If you opt for a custom time, tap Pick date and time. In the next popup, you’ll first select the date, tap Next, and then set the time.
First select a date and then you’ll select a time for custom schedule sending.
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In the last window of the custom time wizard, verify the time and date and then tap Save. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see the text and time at the bottom of the window.
Also: How to enable read receipts in Android Messages
Tap the Send button and your text is scheduled to be sent. It will appear in the chat timeline with a special Schedule icon.
If all is correct, tap Save to schedule the custom time.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
And that’s all there is to scheduling text message sending in Android. You can use this to either schedule a message to a friend or family member or even to send yourself reminders, without having to rely on an awkward (and sometimes jarring) alarm. I use this feature regularly to ensure I don’t miss or forget something when a noisy alarm won’t do.
