How to Schedule Text Messages on Android

Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to social life. Sometimes you don’t have the luxury of using your phone when you know you need it. Other times, especially in relationships, you don’t want to respond right away, but you also don’t want to leave loose ends. In countless situations that life throws at you, message scheduling comes as a relief.

While scheduling can come in many forms, including Telegram bots, the Google Messages app is one of the more elegant solutions. Here is how you can schedule text messages on Android with the help of Google Messages.

Also read: How to Schedule Sending Text Messages on Your iPhone

Schedule a Text Message on Android with Google Messages

Google Messages is the default SMS app in most Android phones, but if your phone doesn’t come with it, you can install it from the Play Store. If it is not the default SMS app, it will prompt you to replace your default SMS/MMS messaging app.

Create a new message for someone by tapping on “Start chat.”

Now, instead of simply tapping on the send arrow icon, hold your finger on the icon until a scheduling menu pops up. Because this feature is brand new, you may just see an additional option to make the SMS “URGENT.”

If you see a scheduling menu instead, you are one of the lucky ones that have been granted this new feature. You can either set it for one of the three set times during the day or pick the precise time and date with the bottom “Pick date and time” option.

Once you’ve selected the schedule for your message, tap on Save. This will show the selected time and date above the text of the message with a tiny clock appearing on the send arrow icon. This will work for all types of messages as long as the phone is connected to either a mobile network or Wi-Fi during the time its sent.

And don’t forget to switch to dark mode by tapping on the upper-right three-dot icon and then tapping on “Enable dark mode.” This will not only prolong your battery charge but will be easier on the eyes while messaging in low-light environments.

What Else Can Google Messages Do?

As an advance replacement for your phone’s default SMS app, Google Messages is pretty impressive. Once you start using it, you will wonder why the default SMS apps are so primitive! Better yet, it continues to be updated almost every month.

Here are just some of the life-quality improvements to expect:

• Reactions can be added to already-sent messages.
• By tapping on reaction emoticons, you can see how different people reacted.
• Drastically expands the range of fonts, graphics, ability to add location, media files, and so on.
• Immediately seeing if someone has Google Messages installed – it will show “Text message” instead if they don’t.
• Smart reply feature enables you to reply with the most commonly-used phrases without typing anything. This is the identical feature implemented in Google’s Gmail service.
• You can not only send photos but can edit them – adding text on parts of the image, similar to TikTok but more basic.
• By tapping on the microphone icon, you can record and send a voice chat, similar to WhatsApp.

As you can see, you are missing out on a lot of improvements to the cemented, default SMS service that is more appropriate to the pre-Internet era. Speaking of messages and considering Facebook’s latest massive data breach, you may want to also take a look at these alternatives for Facebook Messenger.