Can you schedule a message on WhatsApp?
Not an ordinary one. WhatsApp and the WhatsApp Business app have no button for writing a chat to one person now and sending it later. The Business app schedules two narrower things: an away message that answers people while you're busy, and paid marketing messages to many contacts at a date and time you pick. Past that, scheduling takes software, either an automation on your phone or WhatsApp's paid platform.
For anyone who sells, that's the wrong way round. The message you most want to time is the follow-up to one buyer, and it's the one WhatsApp won't hold for you. So match each route to one job in your week, and skip the one that can cost you the number every client has saved.
Your options side by side
| Route | What it schedules | Cost | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Away message | One auto-reply, in hours you set | Free | Only answers people who write first |
| Marketing messages | One message to many contacts | Paid per delivered message | Meta reviews it, and your phone must be online when it's due |
| iPhone Shortcuts | An automation at a time of day | Free | Asks before it runs unless you turn that off |
| Scheduler apps and extensions | Depends on the app | Varies | Apps that link to your account can get it banned |
| Business Platform (API) | Messages your software sends | Meta's charges plus a developer or vendor | Approved templates and a set-up |
Read the last column first. In a busy week you'll grab the quickest fix, and that's often an app that asks you to scan a QR code: the riskiest route on the list.
If the messages you want to time are a reminder before each appointment and a check-in after it, ActivityTracker's workflows send them from your own number at the time you set.
See WhatsApp automationAway messages: answer every lead while you're with a client
Switch the away message on first. It's the only schedule the WhatsApp Business app gives you for free, and WhatsApp's page on away messages puts it under Tools, then Away message, with three schedule choices:
- Always send, which answers every message.
- Custom schedule, which answers only during a period you set, such as a week of leave or a full-day client workshop.
- Outside of business hours, for evenings and weekends. Fill in your hours on your business profile first, or the option isn't there.
The same screen picks who gets it: everyone, everyone not in your address book, everyone except the contacts you choose, or only the ones you choose. Pick everyone not in your address book. New leads get a reply, and clients you've worked with for years don't get an automatic message every time they write. Your phone needs an internet connection for the away message to go out.
A lead who writes outside your hours and hears when you'll call will wait. One who hears nothing writes to the next agent on the list. Make the reply a promise you keep: put each of those callbacks on the next morning's list, ahead of your first call of the day. Two lines that work:
Thanks for your message. I'm with clients until 3pm and I'll reply by 5pm today.
Thanks for getting in touch. I'm done for the night and I'll call you by 10am tomorrow.
Marketing messages: one message to many contacts
The Business app can also schedule one message to many of your contacts. WhatsApp calls these marketing messages, and in some countries business broadcasts. To schedule one, follow WhatsApp's page on creating a marketing message:
- Open Tools, then Marketing messages, and start a draft.
- Add a photo or a video first, because WhatsApp won't take a marketing message without one. Then write the text, add a button if you want replies in one tap, and use the name field so each contact sees their own name.
- Pick the audience from your address book, your broadcast lists or your Lists.
- Meta reviews the message before it goes out.
- Tap Schedule, pick a date, then a time.
- You pay when you schedule it, and the money for contacts it can't reach comes back to your account.
Three details on WhatsApp's pages decide how a seller uses it. Your phone must be online when the message is due; if it isn't, the app tries again after one minute and then every 10 minutes, up to 10 times. Processing usually takes seconds and can take as long as 3 hours, so "the open house starts in an hour" is a poor thing to schedule, and "Saturday's open house, 2pm to 5pm" sent the evening before is a good one. And once a message has gone out, WhatsApp's page on managing marketing messages says editing it only makes a new copy, and deleting it doesn't take it off anyone's phone. Check the date, the price and the name field before you tap Schedule.
It suits one update that everybody on a list needs: a new launch to past buyers, a workshop date to the people who signed up, the week your office closes. WhatsApp's own page lists appointment reminders and birthday greetings among its uses. It also says a business needs each person's permission to message them this way, and must stop when someone asks.
On an iPhone: Shortcuts
Apple's Shortcuts app can run actions at a time of day. Apple's guide to personal automation says that when the time comes you get a notification asking you to run the automation, and that you can edit it to run without asking. The automation lives on that one device and doesn't sync to your others.
Whether it then sends a WhatsApp message by itself depends on the WhatsApp actions Shortcuts offers on your phone. Build one, aim it at your own number, and see what happens before you trust it with a client. If all it does is open WhatsApp with the message typed and wait for your tap, it still earns its place. Set it for 9am Thursday with the follow-up to the buyer who said "talk next week", and at 9am the message is already written and waiting for one tap.
On Android and WhatsApp Web: scheduler apps
WhatsApp on Android and WhatsApp Web have no scheduler either, so scheduling there means a third-party app or a browser extension. Before you install one, find out how it sends. If it asks you to scan a WhatsApp QR code, it's linking itself to your account as a device.
WhatsApp's linked devices page warns that "linking your device through unofficial apps or websites may put your account at risk." The same page says that linking an account to an unofficial app or website, now or in the past, can get it banned for a while or for good, and to link only on WhatsApp Web, WhatsApp for Windows and Mac, Android tablets, companion phones and AI glasses.
For a seller, the number is the asset. It's on your name card, your ads and every past client's phone, and a week without it costs more follow-ups than any scheduler saves. So ask a tool what it does to keep your number safe before you ask how many messages it sends.
Through the WhatsApp Business Platform
If your reminders come from a booking system, a CRM or an online shop, WhatsApp's paid platform is the proper route. Your software decides when to send, and any message that starts a conversation is a template Meta has approved. It's how a reminder the day before every demo, or a payment reminder on the due date, runs for hundreds of clients without anyone typing them.
It's also the most work: a vendor or a developer, approved templates, and a number registered on the platform. Meta's page on messaging limits caps how many people a business can reach outside a customer service window in a moving 24 hours. A new business portfolio starts at 250, and every number in the portfolio shares it, so a three-rep team with three numbers has one 250 between them until the limit rises. If you go this way, start with WhatsApp Business API setup, and check what Meta charges per message and how to raise the 250 before you promise a client their reminders.
Scheduling inside a sales tool
Some sales tools schedule from the number you already use. In ActivityTracker you link your number as a device, the way WhatsApp Web does, or connect it through Meta. Its broadcasts wait for the start time you set, send one message at a time, and only send in the hours you choose. Its workflows message each client a set time before or after a booked appointment. If your number is connected through Meta instead, pick an approved template for the broadcast: Meta delivers nothing else to someone who hasn't written to you in 24 hours.
A linked number isn't one of WhatsApp's own apps, so read WhatsApp's warning before you link one. Its linked devices page says "linking your device through unofficial apps or websites may put your account at risk."
ActivityTracker spaces out the messages your number starts on its own, and stops them if WhatsApp warns the number.
Made-up example: it's Friday at 5pm and Priya, a property agent, has 12 buyers to remind of Saturday's viewings, then 12 to ask what they thought.
Without scheduling, she sends 12 reminders by hand from the car at 6pm on Friday. The check-ins wait until she remembers on Wednesday, and by then two of the buyers have viewed with another agent.
With scheduling, a broadcast set for Friday between 5pm and 7pm sends the reminders one at a time while she drives. A workflow messages each buyer the next morning to ask what they thought of the flat.
Every reply still comes to Priya, and she answers each one herself. The schedule handled the messages that were the same for everyone. The answer to "can we see it again on Tuesday?" is hers.
What to schedule, and what to send yourself
Scheduling suits messages that are the same for everyone and tied to a time: reminders, opening hours, a holiday notice, the link to tomorrow's session. It suits people who are expecting to hear from you.
| The message | Schedule it? | The simplest way |
|---|---|---|
| "I'm in meetings until 3pm" | Yes | An away message on a custom schedule |
| Tomorrow's appointment reminder | Yes | A marketing message, or your booking system through the API |
| Event details to everyone who signed up | Yes | A scheduled marketing message or a broadcast |
| A birthday greeting to a client | Yes | A marketing message set for the morning |
| The follow-up after a quote went quiet | No | A dated reminder to write it yourself |
| A reply to a question | No | Answer it, or let the away message hold the gap |
It's a poor fit for the follow-up that decides a deal. A buyer who went quiet after a quote should hear from a person who has read the last chat, at a time that suits them, in words that pick up where it stopped. Put a dated reminder on your list for those, and write the message when it's due. The sales follow-up process covers how many to send and when to stop.
Four habits keep scheduled messages working for you, in any tool:
- Send in the other person's daytime, not yours. A 9am message to a client eight hours behind you lands at 1am.
- Message only people who agreed to hear from you. WhatsApp's page on marketing messages asks for their opt-in, and says it watches for messages reported as spam.
- Put each person's name in, and read one copy as the client will see it before you schedule the rest.
- Check the date and the time zone twice. A message that has gone out can't be pulled back.
Keep reading
Questions people ask
Not inside WhatsApp. The Business app schedules away messages and paid marketing messages, and anything else needs a phone automation, a third-party tool or the API.
Create a marketing message under Tools, add a photo, pick the audience, tap Schedule and choose a date and a time. You pay when you schedule it, and your phone must be online when it's due.
Not from the Business app. It tries again after one minute and then every 10 minutes, up to 10 times, and the away message also needs your phone online.
No. Editing a sent message only makes a new copy, and deleting it doesn't take it off the phones that already have it, so check it before you schedule.
Not the ones that link to your account. WhatsApp's linked devices page warns that linking through unofficial apps or websites can put your account at risk and get it banned, so check how a tool connects before you scan anything.
Partly. Apple's Shortcuts can run an automation at a time of day, and asks you first unless you set it to run without asking, so test what it sends on your own number.
Sources
- WhatsApp Help Center, How to use away messages, read 27 October 2026
- WhatsApp Help Center, How to create and send a marketing message, read 27 October 2026
- WhatsApp Help Center, How to manage your marketing messages, read 27 October 2026
- WhatsApp Help Center, About linked devices, read 27 October 2026
- Apple Support, Intro to personal automation in Shortcuts on iPhone or iPad, read 27 October 2026
- Meta for Developers, Messaging limits, read 27 October 2026