You can have your iPhone automatically send a WhatsApp message to anyone on a specific day and time. This can be particularly helpful for sending birthday wishes or just sending a message at a future designated time to your office coworker.
In this tutorial, we will share an easy way to schedule WhatsApp messages from your iPhone.
How to schedule messages on WhatsApp
1) Open Apple’s built-in Shortcuts app on your iPhone and tap Automation.
2) Tap Create Personal Automation, and if you don’t see it, tap the plus icon first.
3) Select Time of Day to schedule a WhatsApp message that’s sent at a particular date & time.
4) Make sure Time of Day is checked on the next screen. After that, tap the little time selector and set the desired time when you want your WhatsApp message to be sent.
5) There isn’t a one-time option to schedule the message, but you can repeat it daily, weekly, or monthly. You can select any one of the three options and set the date. Or, for ease, tap Monthly and pick any day from today to one in the future.
Tap Next.
6) Tap Add Action.
7) Select Apps from the top.
8) Scroll down and tap WhatsApp.
9) Tap the Send Message action.
10) Tap the word Message, which is in light blue color, and enter the actual message you want to schedule. In my case, it’s Happy Birthday.
11) After that, tap the word Recipients. Now, type your contact’s name or hit the plus button (+), pick the contact to whom you want to send this scheduled WhatsApp message, and tap Done.
Note:
- While you do this, remember to pick a contact that is on WhatsApp. If you have saved two or more phone numbers of a person, make sure to choose the phone number that is registered on WhatsApp. You can confirm this by going to that person’s profile in your WhatsApp app.
- Don’t add more than one contact. In my tests, the message was only sent to the first added contact and not the others. But you can create several WhatsApp automations for each person individually.
12) By now, you have configured the actual message you want to send as well as its recipient. With that done, tap Next.
13) On this screen, make sure the time and date are correct under the When heading. If not, go back and fix it. But if everything is in order, turn off Ask Before Running and confirm by tapping Don’t Ask.
14) Finally, tap Done.
You will see that your automation is created successfully. You can once again make sure the date and time here are correct. Now, sit back, and your iPhone will automatically send the scheduled message at the set time.
Things to consider
Don’t force quit WhatsApp or the Shortcuts app.
If you restart your iPhone before the scheduled message has been sent, make sure to open Shortcuts and WhatsApp, and remember not to force quit them.
Important: What to do after the scheduled WhatsApp message is sent?
As mentioned earlier, the message is scheduled to be repeated daily, weekly, or monthly. You most likely don’t want the same message to be sent over and over to the same person, so here’s how to turn off the automation or delete it once the scheduled message is sent successfully.
Turn off scheduled WhatsApp message
1) Open the Shortcuts app and tap Automation.
2) Tap the WhatsApp automation.
3) Turn off Enable This Automation and tap Done.
Or delete the scheduled WhatsApp message
1) Go to the Shortcuts app > Automation.
2) Swipe left on the WhatsApp automation and tap Delete.
Should you buy an iOS app to schedule WhatsApp messages?
I recommend against it. Any app you get for free or after a small payment will most likely help you pre-write a message and set a reminder. When the scheduled time comes, the app will simply send a notification to remind you to send the message on WhatsApp, and you will have to send it manually.
You can achieve this same thing by invoking Siri and asking it something like, “Remind me today at 11:58 PM to send a Happy Birthday message to Sebastien on WhatsApp.” You can also manually add a reminder in the Reminders app.
Besides the app, some iOS shortcuts like Auto Message can help schedule WhatsApp messages, but the results may be hit or miss.
So overall, your best bet is to use the automation method we explained above.
Schedule messages elsewhere: