Send Later is a current feature of Mail and Messages that enables delaying an email or text message, respectively, to be sent at a specific future time. Mail added this capability in macOS 13 and iOS 16 while Messages gained it in macOS 15 and iOS 18.
In Messages, Send Later only works with iMessage (communications sent to other Apple devices via Apple’s servers, rather than through cellular carriers). However, because of this, such scheduled messages are stored securely at Apple and sent at the specified time, even if the composing device is offline. Also, when Messages sync via iCloud is enabled, scheduled messages sync, too.
In Mail, Send Later works with any email account. However, because most accounts are not through Apple, scheduled messages require the composing device to be online and awake to send a message.
Also, Send Later in Mail is an account-agnostic, local mailbox that is an extension of the Drafts mailbox but does not sync to other devices. Maybe a future version of Mail will allow it to sync and/or be account-specific.
Client Notes
What a month! In five weeks since I last wrote, I’ve had over 60 client engagements. I thoroughly introduced Joel to Mail, assisted Martha and Carol with their Mac and iPhone migrations, helped Ronna get her books organized in Quicken for her tax accountant, and enabled Alex to recover his Apple account.
I also resolved some odd mysteries, like a handful of files that had become hidden on one of Fred’s Macs, a never-ending storage glitch on Laurie’s Mac, and a battery drain issue on Kimberley’s Apple Watch. Often, software updates are crucial. OS 26.3 came out last week and brings more bug fixes than feature improvements.
Plus, I helped Yael get acquainted with DaVinci Resolve, a better video editor than QuickTime Player, and enabled or reset Touch ID and Face ID for a number of folks, with care around security risks.
Throughout, I regularly wowed clients with the breadth of my knowledge and capability, led Zoë to discover the multitude of domains in which I can help, had more than one person invite me to move in so they could get tips and tricks more often. And, I strengthened my habit of asking about backup and password strategies, getting more people on board with best practices.
Send Later in Mail
In Apple Mail, Send Later, which I described briefly in Happy Unbirthday!, is available in slightly different device-specific locations when composing an email:
- On iPhone and iPad, long-press on the Send button to show a short menu of scheduling choices
- On macOS 15 or earlier, click the menu to the right of the Send button on the toolbar or find Send Later in the Message menu
- On macOS 26 or later, in addition to the menubar item, there is a separate toolbar button available. Feel free to customize the toolbar to add it. (Right-click the toolbar or choose View > Customize Toolbar….)
The choices in these areas are pretty consistent and contextual. Apart from “now” and “later,” you may find options to send at 8:00 am and/or 9:00 pm. Currently, there is no way to change these defaults. However, when you select Send Later…, you can choose any future date and time.
View & Edit Scheduled Emails
After scheduling an email, the message appears in the Send Later mailbox, which you can add to the Favorites section among your mailboxes:
- On Mac, click the Add Mailbox button (
or 
) to the right of Favorites on the sidebar and select it from the menu - On mobile, navigate to Mailboxes, tap Edit, and enable this special item
In either case, you may drag the mailbox to your desired position in the list.
It’s possible to change the send time for a scheduled email. Simply view the message, look for the schedule, and tap Edit.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to directly edit the content of the email. The only way to do so is to edit and cancel the schedule, which will return the message to the Drafts mailbox, where you can treat it like any other draft.
Send Later in Messages
In Messages, for any iMessage, you can choose to delay sending it until a particular date and time. On all devices, simply tap to the left of the message entry field and choose Send Later. You can do this before, during, or after composing a message. Once you’ve composed your message and set the send time, tap the send button.
After scheduling one message, the same schedule is attached to subsequent messages you compose, unless you choose to change or remove it. Note: If you want to cancel a scheduled message but keep the content, make sure to copy the content first. There’s no way to remove a schedule without deleting the whole message.
Edit Scheduled Messages
Unlike Mail, Messages lacks a filter view for all scheduled messages. Instead, they are only shown in the conversation where set. To change the date or time of a send, simply tap Edit next to the schedule and do so.
However, to your benefit, Messages enables editing the content of a scheduled message. Just like you can edit a recently sent message for up to 15 minutes on iOS 18 and macOS 15 or later, simply long-press or right-click the message body and choose Edit from the menu.
A couple months ago, Kimberley went away and offline during my birthday weekend. To express her love and appreciation of me, even while we were apart, she cleverly — and sweetly, scheduled a series of messages to be sent over the course of her retreat. Then, she put her phone in Airplane Mode for the duration and entrusted her messages to Apple. They came through beautifully and to my great surprise!
Note: Remember that that unlike Send Later in Messages, where scheduled messages are stored on the iMessage server, Send Later in Mail requires Mail to be open (even if in the background, hidden, or with all windows closed) and the Mac awake and connected to the Internet.
That’s one of the quirks of working across email accounts and therefore being tied to specific outgoing servers that Apple doesn’t necessarily control.
P.S. For fear of breaking the Sacred Timeline, Apple has not given us the ability to schedule messages to be sent in the past. So, just don’t ask about that possibility.
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