iOS 18: How to use the new “Send Later” feature in Messages

Apple has released iOS 18 to the general public on September 16, a week after the company announced its new iPhone 16 Series, Apple Watch Series 10 And more info at his September event. The update brings a bunch of new features to your iPhone, including RCS messaging and more ways to customize your Home screen. One of the useful new Messages features introduced by iOS 18 is the Send Later feature.

Send Later does what its name implies and lets you schedule a message to be sent later. So if you remember someone’s birthday is coming up or your friend asks you to remind them of something later, you can schedule a message now so you don’t forget.

Learn more: iOS 18 brings these new features to your iPhone

Here’s how you can schedule messages to be sent a few minutes, hours, or days later.

How to Schedule a Text Message on iOS 18

1. Open Messages.
2. Go to the appropriate chat.
3. Press the plus sign (+) next to the text box.
4. Faucet Send later — you may need to press More to see this option.

Your text box will now read Send later, and a blue bar will appear on it, indicating when your message will be delivered. You can tap this bar to set the date and time.

You can only schedule a message up to two weeks in advance, even if the date wheel points to months in the future. So if it’s July, unfortunately you can’t schedule a message to send in December.

Once you have selected the date and time to send your message, tap the text box to bring up your keyboard. Type your message and tap the send button.

After you hit send, your message will appear in the chat with a dotted outline and a message on it indicating when the message will be sent. There is also a button that says To modify.

Tapping To modify opens a drop-down menu with options for Send a message, Modification time And Delete message. If you want to edit the content of the message, you need to long press on the actual message and tap To modify as you would with a message you have already sent.

If you know a friend’s birthday is in the next week or two, you can schedule a message now to send later so you don’t forget on the big day.

To learn more about iOS 18, here is my iOS 18 Review, how to change your lock screen flashlight app and our iOS 18 Cheat Sheet. You can also consult Everything Apple Announced at Its September Event.