You’ve been there. It’s 11:30 PM on a Tuesday, and you suddenly remember that your boss needs that link to the project brief. Or maybe it’s your sister’s birthday tomorrow, and you know for a fact you’ll sleep through the actual morning celebration. You want to send the message now while you're thinking about it, but you definitely don't want their phone buzzing in the middle of the night. It feels like such a basic request. People have been asking, "how do you send a delayed text on iPhone?" for basically a decade, and for a long time, the answer was honestly a mess of workarounds and weird automation tricks.
Things changed recently. With the rollout of iOS 18, Apple finally stopped being stubborn and gave us a native "Send Later" feature. It’s tucked away, though. It isn't just a giant button sitting next to the text box.
If you aren’t on the latest software, you’re still stuck using the Shortcuts app, which feels a bit like trying to build a clock just to see the time. But let's get into how this actually works in the real world, because there are some weird quirks about who can see these messages and what happens if you lose service at the "send" time.
The iOS 18 Way: Using Send Later
Honestly, it’s about time. If you’ve updated your iPhone recently, the process for how do you send a delayed text on iPhone is significantly more intuitive.
First, open a conversation in Messages. Look at that little plus (+) icon to the left of the text field. You’ve probably clicked it a thousand times to send a photo or a location. Tap it. You’ll see a list of options like Camera, Photos, and Stickers. You might need to tap "More" or swipe up to see the full list, but eventually, you’ll find the Send Later icon. It looks like a little clock face with a blue gradient.
Once you tap that, a horizontal slider or a date picker pops up. You pick the day. You pick the hour. Then you type your message into the blue-outlined bubble.
When you hit the send arrow, the message doesn't actually go anywhere. It sits there in your chat thread, hovering at the bottom with a dashed outline. It’s a ghost message. It waits.
The Catch with iMessage
Here is the part that kind of sucks: this native feature only works for iMessage. If the person you are texting has a green bubble—meaning they’re on Android or you’re just using standard SMS—the "Send Later" option usually won't even show up in that menu. Apple keeps it in the ecosystem. If you’re trying to schedule a text to your friend with a Samsung, you’re going to have to go back to the old-school methods we used to use in 2023.
Scheduling for Everyone: The Shortcuts Workaround
If you aren't on iOS 18, or if you need to message someone who isn't using an iPhone, you have to use the Shortcuts app. It’s a bit clunky. Okay, it’s a lot clunky.
Shortcuts is a powerful app that most people ignore because it looks like coding. To schedule a text here, you aren't really "scheduling a message" in the traditional sense; you’re creating a tiny robot that performs an action at a specific time.
- Open Shortcuts and go to the Automation tab at the bottom.
- Tap the plus (+) button to create a new automation.
- Choose Time of Day. Pick your time (say, 8:00 AM).
- Change the "Repeat" setting to Monthly or Daily if it’s a recurring thing, or just leave it if you plan to delete it after it runs.
- Crucial Step: Set it to Run Immediately. If you leave "Ask Before Running" turned on, your phone will just send you a notification asking if you want to send the text at that time. That defeats the whole purpose of a delay.
- On the next screen, search for the Send Message action.
- Type your text and choose your recipient.
The biggest headache here? This automation stays active. If you don't go back in and delete it after the message sends, your phone will try to send that exact same text to that person every single day or month. I once accidentally sent "Happy Anniversary" to my partner three days in a row because I forgot to toggle the automation off. It was embarrassing.
Third-Party Apps: Are They Worth It?
You’ll see apps in the App Store like Scheduled or Carrier that claim to handle this for you. Honestly? Most of them are just wrappers for the Shortcuts app or they use a third-party server to send the message.
The problem is privacy. When you use a third-party app to schedule your texts, you’re often giving that app access to your contacts and the content of your messages. Plus, many of them can’t actually send the message for you because of Apple’s security "sandbox" rules. They just send you a reminder at the scheduled time, which tells you to open the app and hit send yourself.
That’s not a delayed text. That’s just a glorified alarm clock.
What Happens if Your Phone is Off?
This is a nuance people miss. If you use the new iOS 18 "Send Later" feature, the message is stored on Apple’s servers. If your phone dies at 7:59 AM and the message was scheduled for 8:00 AM, it should still go out.
However, if you used the Shortcuts automation method, the message is triggered by your local device. If your iPhone is dead, the automation can’t fire. The robot is asleep. The message won’t send until you turn the phone back on, and even then, it might just fail entirely because the "window" for the trigger passed.
Why Does This Even Matter?
Digital etiquette is a moving target. We are constantly reachable, which means we are constantly interruptible. Sending a text at 2:00 AM because you finally found that TikTok you promised to share is technically fine—most people keep their phones on "Do Not Disturb"—but it still feels a bit aggressive.
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Scheduling allows you to respect boundaries while clearing your own mental load. It’s a productivity tool masquerading as a messaging feature.
Practical Steps to Master the Delay
If you want to get this right and stop worrying about "how do you send a delayed text on iPhone," here is the workflow you should adopt right now.
Check your software version. Go to Settings > General > About. If you aren't on at least iOS 18, go to Software Update and get it. It makes this whole process 100 times easier.
Once you’re updated, start using the "Send Later" feature for your non-urgent work thoughts. It keeps your professional life within business hours even if your brain is working overtime.
For those green-bubble friends, stick to the Shortcuts app but keep a "Clean Up" folder. Every Sunday, go into your Shortcuts Automations and delete the ones that have already run. This prevents the "groundhog day" effect where you accidentally spam people with the same message for a week straight.
Lastly, remember that scheduled messages don't allow for real-time reactions. If you schedule a "How's your day going?" text for 2:00 PM, but you find out at 1:00 PM that the person just got into a car accident, that scheduled text is still going to fly out into the world looking incredibly insensitive. Always keep an eye on your "ghost" messages in the thread and be ready to long-press them to "Edit" or "Delete" if the context of the conversation changes before the timer hits zero.