How to schedule messages on WhatsApp in 2026

You can't schedule a regular chat message on WhatsApp yet. As of September 2026, neither WhatsApp nor the WhatsApp Business app has a schedule send option for one-to-one or group chats. The workarounds are an iPhone Shortcuts automation, a scheduled business broadcast in the Business app, or scheduled campaigns on the WhatsApp Business Platform (API).

A native scheduler is in development. WABetaInfo, which tracks WhatsApp beta builds, first reported a scheduled messages feature in February 2026. Later reports describe tapping and holding the send button to pick a time from 10 minutes to two weeks ahead, in chats and groups. It had not been released to users when this guide was updated, so plan around what exists today:

• A few personal messages: iPhone Shortcuts, or a calendar reminder to send it yourself. WhatsApp's Remind me option on a message only brings it back to your attention; it doesn't send anything.
• A small business working from the app: business broadcasts, in the countries where they're available.
• Customer messages at any volume: the API, through a platform that handles templates and timing.

Apple's Shortcuts app can run WhatsApp's own Send Message action at a set time. It's the closest thing to schedule send on WhatsApp for iPhone, and because it uses WhatsApp's official Siri integration, it isn't a third-party hack.

1. Open Shortcuts, go to the Automation tab and tap + to create a new automation.
2. Choose Time of Day, set the time and pick Daily, Weekly or Monthly. For a one-off message, choose Monthly on the right date and delete the automation once it has run.
3. Select Run Immediately so it doesn't wait for your confirmation. On older iOS versions, turn off Ask Before Running instead.
4. Add the WhatsApp Send Message action (look under Apps › WhatsApp if search doesn't show it), type your message and choose the recipient.
5. If the action offers Show When Run, turn it off, then tap Done.
6. In WhatsApp, turn off Screen Lock under Privacy settings. It blocks Shortcuts from reaching the app.

Android has no official way to schedule WhatsApp messages. The message scheduler apps for WhatsApp in the Play Store work by operating your phone for you. They use Android's Accessibility service to open WhatsApp at the chosen time, paste your text and tap Send as if they were you.

That approach has real downsides:

• Permissions: Accessibility access lets an app read and act on everything on your screen, including your chats.
• Reliability: most of these apps need the phone unlocked or your screen lock turned off, and they tend to break when WhatsApp changes its layout.
• Account risk: WhatsApp's Help Center says automated and bulk messaging have always violated its Terms of Service, and WhatsApp uses machine learning to find and ban accounts that do it. One scheduled birthday wish is unlikely to be noticed. Scheduling dozens of customer messages is the pattern those systems look for.
• Modified apps: unofficial WhatsApp versions that advertise built-in scheduling, such as GB WhatsApp or FM WhatsApp, break WhatsApp's terms outright. WhatsApp names them in its Help Center and warns that accounts using them can be temporarily or permanently banned.

For a business, none of these is a plan: a ban means losing the number your customers know.

WhatsApp Web and Desktop: no. There is no scheduling in either. Browser extensions that add a send-later button work by scripting the WhatsApp Web page, so your computer and browser tab have to stay open, and they carry the same terms risk as Android apps.

WhatsApp Business app: regular chats can't be scheduled, but two features come close:

• Business broadcasts (still called marketing messages in some countries) can be sent now or scheduled. Go to Tools › Business broadcasts, choose your audience, add text, media and an optional button, review the price, then pick Schedule. They reach customers even if they haven't saved your number, Meta reviews them before they go out, and you pay per delivered message once your free messages are used up. WhatsApp says the feature is available in limited countries.
• Away messages can run on a schedule, but they only answer people who write to you first. Our WhatsApp auto reply guide covers the setup.

Free broadcast lists can't be scheduled at all. They also only reach people who saved your number, which our broadcast list guide explains.

Personal workarounds suit personal messages, the Business app covers occasional promotions, and anything that must go out on time for every customer belongs on the API.

The WhatsApp Business Platform sends from Meta's servers, not from a phone, so a message scheduled for 9:00 goes out at 9:00 whether your phone is on or not. Software built on it gives you two kinds of scheduling:

• Scheduled campaigns: one message to a list at a set date and time, such as a Friday morning sale announcement.
• Timed automations: messages scheduled relative to an event, such as 30 minutes after an abandoned checkout, 24 hours before an appointment or three days after delivery. These do most of the work, because the timing follows each customer.

Good platforms add quiet hours: a message that would land at 3am waits for the morning window instead of being dropped.

Three rules keep it reliable:

• Opt-in. Meta requires permission before you message people. You can collect it on your website, at checkout, in person or by SMS, as long as it names your business and follows local law.
• Approved templates. Any message sent outside the 24-hour window that follows a customer's last message must use a template Meta has approved.
• Messaging limits. A new business portfolio can reach 250 unique people per rolling 24 hours outside open conversations. Completing business verification can raise that to 2,000, and consistent, good-quality sending raises it further. Our WhatsApp broadcast limit guide has the details.

Recoverly is a WhatsApp automation platform built on Meta's official Cloud API. A scheduled campaign takes five steps:

1. Connect your number. Click Continue with Meta and confirm your WhatsApp Business number through Meta's Embedded Signup. It takes about two minutes, and with coexistence mode the WhatsApp Business app keeps working on your phone.
2. Build an opted-in list. Collect subscribers with the free chat widget and opt-in capture; on Shopify, the marketing checkbox at checkout counts too. Recoverly records where each consent came from.
3. Create the campaign. Choose your audience of opted-in contacts, then pick a ready-made campaign template or write your own with variables. Recoverly submits new templates to Meta for approval inside the app.
4. Pick the time. Choose Send now, or set a date and time in your own timezone.
5. Let it send. Recoverly delivers in measured waves to protect your quality rating, never sends the same campaign to anyone twice, and reports sent, delivered and read per campaign.

For messages timed around each customer, use automations: waits from 15 minutes to 72 hours, conditions such as replied or ordered, stop rules, and quiet hours that defer rather than drop. Appointment reminders are the classic case, with a confirmation at booking and a reminder 24 hours before, which the product cites as cutting no-shows by about half. Campaigns and automations are both on the Lite plan. See Campaigns and WhatsApp automation.

• Personal workarounds: free, apart from whatever a third-party app charges.
• Business broadcasts in the app: after your free messages, you pay for each message delivered within five days, priced by the recipient's country code. The app shows the total before you send, and message packs (on iPhone, for now) let you prepay credits, one per recipient who receives the message.
• The API: Meta charges per delivered template message, priced by category (marketing costs the most; utility and authentication far less) and by the recipient's country. From October 1, 2026, Meta also charges for utility templates sent inside the 24-hour customer service window, and for replies in that window once a phone number has used its free 1,000 a month, at utility rates for each market. Conversations that start from Click-to-WhatsApp ads stay free inside Meta's free entry point window.

Software is billed separately. Recoverly has a Free plan, Lite at $19 a month and Pro at $49 a month, with no message caps and no markup on Meta's fees. The WhatsApp API pricing guide walks through rates and sample monthly bills.

• Send in the customer's local time. A morning send from New York lands in the evening in Mumbai. Schedule by time zone when your list spans regions.
• Respect the night. Use quiet hours so late messages wait instead of waking people up.
• Personalize. A name, an order number or an appointment time turns a broadcast into a message.
• Cap frequency. One or two marketing messages a month per contact keeps blocks and reports down, and those signals drive your quality rating.
• Make stopping easy. Honor STOP instantly. It protects your number better than any copy trick.