How to schedule a WhatsApp message
The short answer: WhatsApp has no scheduled message feature in personal chats. There is no clock icon next to the send button, no “send later” in the menu, and no setting hidden somewhere that turns one on.
Everything that does work is a workaround living outside WhatsApp, and each one asks for something in return. Here is what each actually does, followed by the thing most people searching this are really trying to solve.
Android: scheduler apps that tap send for you
Third-party scheduling apps are the usual Android answer. You write the message inside the scheduler, pick a time, and at that moment the app opens WhatsApp and sends it for you.
It is worth understanding how that works, because it explains the trade. These apps cannot post to WhatsApp directly, so they use Android's accessibility permissions to drive the interface on your behalf: they open the chat and tap the send button the way your thumb would. That is a broad permission to hand an app, and it means delivery depends on your phone being on, unlocked enough to cooperate, and not having had its layout changed by a WhatsApp update.
For a one-off birthday message at midnight it is usually fine. For anything you cannot afford to miss, you are trusting a chain with several links in it.
iPhone: a Shortcuts automation
iOS has no scheduler apps of that kind, because the accessibility trick is not available. What it has instead is Shortcuts, which can build a personal automation that runs at a time you choose and sends a message.
This is more legitimate than the Android route and more limited. The automation runs on your device, so the phone has to be on and, depending on your iOS version and settings, may need to be unlocked or may ask you to confirm before it sends. Setting one up for a single message is also more work than typing the message.
It works. It is just not a thing you will do casually, twice a week.
WhatsApp Business: away messages are not scheduled messages
If you use the WhatsApp Business app you will find greeting messages and away messages, and they are frequently mistaken for scheduling. They are not the same thing. Both are automatic replies: they fire when a customer messages you, inside or outside your set hours. Nothing is sent to anyone who has not written to you first.
That is genuinely useful for a business, and useless for “wish Anjali at midnight.” The trigger is their message, not the clock.
The question behind the question
Search traffic for scheduling a WhatsApp message splits into two very different needs, and only one of them needs scheduling at all.
The first is a message that has to land at an exact moment while you are asleep or on a flight: a midnight birthday wish, a good-luck text before an exam. That genuinely needs one of the workarounds above.
The second is much more common. You need to send something later and you are afraid you will forget: chase the invoice on Monday, message the landlord after 6, follow up if she has not replied by Thursday. Nothing about that needs an automated send. It needs you to be reminded at the right moment, with the phone already in your hand and the chat one tap away. In our own usage data, 87.8% of one-off reminders are for something within the next twenty-four hours, which is exactly the shape of this problem.
remind me to message the landlord at 6pmchase the invoice on Monday at 10amfollow up with Anjali on Thursday if no replyA reminder instead of a scheduled send
This is what Pokobot does. It is a WhatsApp contact you text in plain English, and it messages you back at the time you named. No app to install, no accessibility permission, no automation to maintain, and nothing that breaks when WhatsApp changes its layout.
The reminder arrives as a normal WhatsApp message, so you are already in the app you were going to send from. You read it, switch to the chat, and write the message yourself, which is usually better anyway: a message you write in the moment reads like you, and a scheduled one occasionally lands after the thing it was about has already happened.
remind me to wish Anjali at 12amlistcancel 2Reminding someone else: the poke command
There is one case where you want a message to reach another person at a set time, and it is usually not a birthday wish. It is your mother's medicine at 9pm, or a teammate's deadline.
Pokobot handles this with an explicit command. A message starting with the word “poke” sets a reminder for a saved contact rather than for you, and the first one asks that person's permission before anything is delivered. They tap Accept, and future reminders from you go through. They can revoke it at any time and the reminders stop.
Two deliberate limits. It only works for contacts you have saved, so it cannot be pointed at an arbitrary number, and only a message that begins with “poke” can route anywhere but back to you. Typing “remind Priya to take her medicine” sets your own reminder, not hers. That is not a bug: sending a message to the wrong person is a failure worth designing out entirely.
poke Priya to take her medicine at 9pmQuestions, answered
- Can you schedule a message on WhatsApp?
- Not inside WhatsApp. Personal chats have no scheduled message feature in 2026. You can approximate it with an Android scheduler app that uses accessibility permissions to tap send for you, or an iPhone Shortcuts automation, but both run outside WhatsApp and depend on your phone being on at that moment.
- How do I schedule a WhatsApp message on iPhone without an app?
- Use Shortcuts. Create a personal automation set to a time of day, add a send message action, and choose the contact. Depending on your iOS version and settings it may run on its own or ask you to confirm first, and the phone needs to be on for it to fire.
- Are WhatsApp scheduler apps safe?
- They ask for Android accessibility permissions, which let an app read and act on what is on your screen. That is a wide grant, and worth being deliberate about. It is also why these apps break periodically: they depend on WhatsApp's interface staying where they expect it.
- Does WhatsApp Business let you schedule messages?
- No. Greeting and away messages are automatic replies triggered by a customer messaging you, not messages sent at a time you pick. Nothing goes out to someone who has not written to you first.
- What if I just want to remember to send the message myself?
- Then you want a reminder, not a scheduler. Text Pokobot on WhatsApp with something like “remind me to message the landlord at 6pm” and it messages you at 6pm, in the same app you will send from. Free for 7 days, no card and no signup.