How to Schedule WhatsApp Messages: A Step by Step Guide

Assume you are running a business, and being in that position, you always look to automate your daily tasks and boost sales efficiency throughout your organization. 

One of the primary tasks that you perform every day is communicating with your customers. During your work hours, you can effectively reach out to your customers and reply to their inquiries swiftly because you are available to do so. 

However, there are times when you might want to schedule a message to be sent at a later time. For example, sending a birthday greeting at midnight, a reminder for a meeting, or managing business communications more efficiently. 

A channel that is most prominently used for everyday communication is WhatsApp. It is the most heavily used communication app in the world, and you can use it to schedule your messages to get in touch with customers automatically. 

Having said that, WhatsApp doesn’t have a built-in scheduling feature, but there are ways to achieve this through third-party apps. So, in this guide, I’ll walk you through the steps to schedule WhatsApp messages on different devices and types of WhatsApp. 

What is WhatsApp scheduling?

As implied by its name, WhatsApp scheduling is an approach where you schedule your messages ahead of time that will be sent automatically at a later time and date. 

This way, you can reach out to customers at a particular time automatically even if you are doing something else or outside of your office hours altogether. You don't have to physically type in and send the message yourself as the system can take care of that aspect. 

What are the advantages of using scheduled WhatsApp messages?

Automating your WhatsApp communication has multiple advantages over manually punching in the message. Some of them are as follows: 

Comfortability 

As I mentioned before, you can craft your WhatsApp messages whenever you are free and program them to be sent at a future date or at what you consider to be the right moment to connect with your audience. The fact that you can connect with your audience at a later time allows you to manage your sales engagement more effectively, especially if they are in a different time zone than you. 

Consistent conversations

If you are running a business, then connecting with your customers regularly is a must-have. For this reason, scheduling future WhatsApp messages can help you offer continuous engagement to keep your customers in the loop and stay relevant in their minds.

Optimized communication 

Engaging customers when they are busy with something else will not only annoy them but also diminish the returns of your marketing efforts. However, by automating messages to be sent at the correct moments, you can increase ROI while also being considerate about the privacy of your audience. 

Better engagement

The time at which you connect with your customers is important in how they interact with your brand. If you reach out to them when they are already actively using WhatsApp, you can boost your engagement rates and compel them to take action. 

For instance, if you have an online store, then forwarding e-commerce WhatsApp marketing messages at a time when buying activity is at a high can boost the likelihood of getting conversions.

Steps to schedule WhatsApp messages

Now that you have learned about WhatsApp message scheduling and the benefits it provides, let’s check out the different ways in which you can schedule your messages for enhanced engagement. 

Ways to schedule WhatsApp messages using Android devices?

By scheduling WhatsApp messages via an Android device can allow you to save hours, optimize conversations, and engage your customers on the go. 

To schedule WhatsApp messages on Android, you will need a third-party app since WhatsApp itself doesn’t support this feature. One of the most popular apps for this purpose is SKEDit. 

Head to the Play Store and download the SKEDit app. It is a WhatsApp message scheduler app that lets you automate your communication over WhatsApp. 

Launch the app and select a contact or WhatsApp group you want to schedule the message for. Now, choose the date and time for your message. 

Once that is done, enter your message. You can attach files, including images, videos, and documents to your scheduled message using the ‘clip’ option. Next, click on the checkmark button in the upper right-hand corner to schedule your WhatsApp message.

If you want a confirmation message before the scheduled message gets sent to your customers, enable the ‘ask me before sending’ to verify the correctness and ensure accuracy. SKEDit will inform you after it has successfully sent the scheduled message. 

Ways to schedule WhatsApp messages using the iPhone?

In comparison to Android, scheduling WhatsApp messages on iOS is a bit trickier due to stricter app restrictions. However, you can use the Shortcuts app to set up automation.

Navigate to the App Store and install the Shortcuts application. Launch the app and select the ‘Automation’ option from the bottom bar.

Click on the ‘Create Personal Automation’ option. Next, select the ‘Time of Day’ trigger and set the time you want the message to be sent. 

Now, you have to add an action that happens once the initial condition is triggered (i.e. when it hits the time of the day you have picked). Following that, click the ‘Add Action’ and go to the Apps section to select ‘WhatsApp’ from the list of apps.

In the next screen, select the ‘Send Message’ option as the type of your action. Type in your WhatsApp message in the provided space. Once it is finished, click the ‘Recipients’ button, and pick the contacts you want to send the message to or tap on the ‘+’ symbol to select them from your phone book.

Finally, click on the ‘Done’ button to save the automation. After you have saved the automation flow, make sure that it is enabled. You can also enable the ‘Ask before running’ option and at the scheduled time, you will receive a notification asking for confirmation to send the message. 

Ways to schedule WhatsApp messages on the WhatsApp Web

If you are using WhatsApp on a PC or laptop, you can schedule your WhatsApp messages using the Blueticks extension. Here’s how:

‍Install the Blueticks extension from the Chrome Web Store and log in to your WhatsApp Web account.

Choose a contact, group, or chat from your chat window and tap on the icon beside the ‘Send’ button. 

In the screen that opens, enter your message and choose the date and time. After that, press the ‘Schedule send’. Now, it will be automatically sent to your selected audience at the specified time.

How to schedule WhatsApp messages using the WhatsApp Business API?

Up till now, you were using third-party apps or extensions to schedule your WhatsApp messages. Additionally, you can only schedule one message at a time. Plus, there was next to no customization available to tailor your message based on the recipients.

This is why, if you wish to access advanced messaging features of WhatsApp you will need the WhatsApp Business API. Using the API, you can:

• Send various kinds of WhatsApp messages using the business messaging templates.
• Personalize your messages on a granular level to ensure relevancy.
• Schedule messages based on other triggers and not just date & time.
• Monitor the effectiveness of outreach using key performance metrics. 

Having said that, let’s see how you can automate messages using the WhatsApp API. 

To start with, you will have to get a marketing platform with automation functionality that lets you schedule your messages because the API lacks a front-end UI. This is where Zixflow comes in. 

Zixflow is a multi-channel marketing software that has the capability to automate your WhatsApp messages to guide customers through the stages of your sales pipeline. With Zixflow, you can schedule your messages based on their actions rather than date & time. 

For example, Zixflow Flows allows you to set up automated messaging using IFTTT triggers. These triggers can be in the form of subscribing to your newsletter, signing up to your website, or submitting a form. Once a customer completes any of these tasks, you can schedule automated messages and the system will automatically send them at predetermined dates and times.

On top of the Flows, Zixflow comes with sales cadences because sending a message once is not enough to encourage a customer to take action or convert prospects into customers. So, sending follow-ups on WhatsApp is the best way to keep customers engaged. 

Using these sales cadences, you can engage your contacts in a step-by-step manner with intervals between each step. Furthermore, you can customize the messages that are to be sent in each step. 

This way, you can personalize your WhatsApp communication effectively without having to worry about these messages manually or spend your time crafting them individually.

Schedule your WhatsApp messages to drive efficiency through the roof

Scheduling WhatsApp messages can significantly enhance your communication efficiency, and allow you to engage customers throughout the clock. 

Even though WhatsApp doesn’t offer a native scheduling feature, using the third-party apps like SKEDit and Shortcuts, you can still achieve practical results without hindering your conversations. 

However, if you are a medium or large enterprise, then you are better off using the WhatsApp API for greater customizability and advanced features. Plus, with Zixflow, you can maximize the usability of WhatsApp API by integrating it with the platform. 

Besides the ability to let you schedule messages, Zixflow comes with numerous other features like centralized inbox, unified API for email and SMS, no-code campaign builder, and many more. 

It doesn’t end there! Zixflow also offers a 7-day free trial to test out the solution and see how each feature works all without providing any payment details firsthand. Sounds great right? Don’t wait, get started with Zixflow for free and ensure your messages are sent at the perfect time, every time.