How to schedule an email to send later on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Learn the easy way to schedule emails to be sent automatically at a later date and time on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

An iPhone screenshot of the Mail app showing how to schedule email to be sent later

Why would you want to schedule emails?

There are plenty of reasons why you’d want to set an email to be sent at a future date rather than now. For example, you might want to schedule a “happy birthday” email for one of your friends now, so you don’t forget when their actual birthday arrives.

For professionals, you might want to schedule an email to your boss at 5:30 AM to make it look like you’re up and working early. Or maybe you work with someone in a different time zone and want to make sure this person receives your email at a specific time rather than in the middle of the night. Delaying the delivery of the email can ensure the recipient is at his desk when the message is sent.

Either way, if you want an email to be delivered on a future date, this tutorial has you covered.

Schedule emails on iPhone and iPad

Here are the steps for three popular apps: Apple Mail, Gmail, and Spark.

Mail app

Starting with iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, you can schedule emails from the Mail app. It works not just for iCloud but for all the email services you have added inside your Mail app.

Follow these steps to schedule email on your iPhone or iPad:

1) Open the Mail app and compose your email.

2) Touch and hold the blue send arrow button.

3) Pick a suggested time, and the email is scheduled. You can also tap Send Later to choose a custom date, time, and even time zone! Once everything is set, tap Done to schedule this email. It will be sent automatically at the designated time.

Schedule email in iPhone Mail app

Important: You must keep your iPhone switched on for scheduled email to go through, as the Mail app can work automatically at the scheduled time only when your device is powered on. This approach is different than scheduling emails in Gmail (explained below), which works on the server level, and thus there is no need to keep your device switched on after scheduling an email in Gmail.

Cancel scheduled email

Have you changed your mind and wish to tweak the scheduled email time or abort the operation? Follow these steps to edit or cancel your scheduled email:

1) Open the Mail app and go to the Mailbox screen.

2) Tap Send Later to see all your scheduled emails.

3) Select a scheduled email.

4) Choose Edit.

  • From here, you can change the scheduled time. Note that your email will be sent instantly if you edit the Send time to something that’s already passed.
  • Alternatively, tap Cancel Send Later if you no longer wish to send this email.
Edit or cancel scheduled email in Mail app on iPhone

Important: As of now, you can only change the Send time of the email. You can’t edit the contents (body, subject line, receiver’s address, etc.) of the scheduled email.

Gmail

1) Open the Gmail app and tap Compose.

2) Enter the recipient’s email address, subject line, and compose your email body.

3) Tap the three dots icon and tap Schedule send.

4) Choose an option like Tomorrow morning, Tomorrow afternoon, etc. To set a custom date and time, tap Pick date & time.

5) Set the desired date and time when you want to schedule your email and tap Save.

Schedule email in Gmail on iPhone

That’s it! You have successfully scheduled your email. It will automatically send at the set time. Since this action is on the server level, keeping the Gmail app open or your iPhone switched on isn’t necessary for the scheduled email(s) to be sent. You can see this scheduled email even on a desktop.

Cancel a scheduled email in Gmail

If you change your mind, follow these steps before the email is sent:

1) Open the Gmail app and tap the hamburger icon from the top left.

2) Choose Scheduled.

3) Select the email to open it.

4) Finally, tap Cancel send.

Cancel Schedules email in Gmail on iPhone

If you cancel a scheduled email, it will be automatically moved to your Drafts folder, where you can delete it from there. Or, if you canceled the scheduled email because of an error, you can fix it in drafts and reschedule it. The steps are the same if you choose to reschedule.

Spark

These instructions are written for iPhone, but the process is the same if you use the Spark iPad app.

1) Download and set up Spark on your iPhone or iPad.

2) Create a new email.

3) Fill in the recipient, subject, and body of your email.

4) Tap the email scheduling icon above the keyboard to the right.

5) Choose from one of the pre-defined schedules, or you can tap Pick date to select your custom date and time. Note that Spark allows you to schedule up to six months into the future.

6) Your email is now ready to be scheduled. To finalize, tap the email scheduling icon (or the send icon) in the upper right corner.

Schedule email in Spark on iPhone

Your email will automatically be sent to your recipient on this date and time. If you want to cancel or change the schedule in the meantime, you will find your scheduled email in the Outbox folder.

Schedule emails on Mac

You have a few different ways to schedule emails on Mac. For starters, you can use the Apple Mail app on macOS Ventura and later. Additionally, you can also use Gmail, Spark, and Automator apps. We’ve listed the steps for all methods below.

Mail app

1) Open the Mail app and compose your email.

2) Click the tiny arrow next to the send button and choose a suggested time.

3) Or, click Send Later to set a custom date and time. Once done, click Schedule, and you’re all set.

Send Later in Mail app on Mac

For scheduled email to work, keep your Mac switched on, and don’t Quit the Mail app. Let it stay open in the background. If you no longer need to work in the Mail app, just minimize it.

Gmail

Follow these steps to schedule your emails in Gmail:

1) Visit Gmail in any web browser of your choice and compose a new email or open a draft.

2) After filling in all the details and email body, click the tiny arrow next to the Send button.

3) Click Schedule send.

Schedule email in Gmail on Mac

4) Choose a time. If you have scheduled an email in the past, you’ll also see a handy “Last scheduled time” option. To set a custom date and time, click Pick date & time > set it accordingly > Schedule send.

Set email Schedule time

You have now successfully scheduled this email. It will move to the Scheduled category in the left sidebar and be automatically sent at the desired time. You don’t have to keep the Gmail browser tab open or Mac switched on. This scheduled email will also appear inside your Gmail app on a smartphone.

Spark

1) Download Spark for Mac and set it up with your email account.

2) Create a new email. Fill in the recipient’s email address, the subject line, and the body of the email.

3) Click the schedule icon right next to the Send button.

Prepare email to schedule on Mac

4) You may choose from one of the pre-defined dates and times or select your own, which we are doing for this tutorial. We want to schedule our email to be sent at 9 AM on February 27th. Click Set Time when ready.

Select date and time for email schedule on Mac

5) As you can see in the screenshot below, your email is now successfully scheduled. Click the blue Schedule button to finalize.

Email ready to be scheduled on Mac

Your email will automatically be sent on your set date and time. If you need to make a change to this email’s schedule or simply want to delete the scheduled email entirely, you can find this in the Outbox folder of Spark on your Mac.

Use Automator and Calendar

You can use two built-in Mac apps, namely Automator and Calendar, to send a scheduled email through the Apple Mail app. The process is lengthy compared to the above options, but you can try it out. It’s useful when you want to match your calendar event timing with the email.

1) Open Automator on your Mac from the Applications Finder folder, select New Document, and then pick Application for the type.

2) In the far left-hand sidebar, make sure Actions is selected and under Library, and pick Mail.

3) To the right, choose New Mail Message and drag it to the workflow space.

4) Compose your message in that New Mail Message box, include all pieces (To, Subject, etc.) and select an Account if necessary.

Follow the same steps to add more messages that you’d like to schedule for the same time.

5) Choose Send Outgoing Messages from the list and drag it to the workflow window below the New Mail Message box (or after the last Message box if you have more than one).

Automator New Mail Message and Send Outgoing Messages

6) Click File > Save, give your Application a name (like Schedule Mail), and hit Save. By default, Automator will save the Application to Automator > iCloud, but you can select a different spot if you like. Just remember where you save it for the next steps.

What you did with the steps above was create an Automator Application that will send the email you composed when it’s triggered. Now it’s time to set up the trigger on a date and at a time you choose in your Calendar.

7) Open Calendar on your Mac and head to the date when you want to send the email(s). Create an event on that date and select the time you’d like.

8) Under Alert, pick Custom.

9) In the first drop-down box, choose Open File.

10) In the next drop-down box, select the application you created. You’ll likely need to pick Other and navigate to where you saved it.

11) For the Alert timing, choose At Time of Event in the drop-down box.

12) Click OK.

Calendar to Schedule Mail Using the Automator Application

And there you have it! You’ve created an application to send the email you wrote on the date and at the time you want. After the scheduled time, you can head to your Sent folder in the Mail app to double-check that the email was sent as you intended.

The first time the application runs, you will receive a pop-up message asking for your permission. But if you continue to schedule emails with it, you shouldn’t see that message again.

Continue scheduling emails: You can reuse the Automator Application that you created to keep scheduling emails. So although it’s a bit of work upfront, reusing the application is simple.

1) Open Automator and select Open an Existing Document.

2) Locate the application and click Open.

3) Make your changes to the New Mail Message box in the workflow space. If you have more than one, make sure to either edit those for additional emails or remove them by clicking the X in the top right corner.

Automator Remove Mail Message Box

4) Click File > Save to save the changes you made.

5) Follow the steps to add an event to your Calendar to run the application and schedule your emails to be sent.

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