How To Schedule Messages On Slack

Can you schedule messages on Slack?

In June 2021, Slack announced the launch of a “schedule message” feature.

Rather than relying on Slack integrations like Message Them Later, Slack Scheduler, or Send It Later, you can now queue up a Slack message to send at a later time.

How it works

Managing communication within your team can be stressful, especially if you are working in different time zones.  

You can break the barriers when you schedule Slack messages to arrive at the time that you want. Here’s how you can use the Scheduled Send feature for your teams on Slack:

• Open the conversation with the person you’d like to send the message to.

• Type the message that you want to send later.

• Click the dropdown arrow icon beside the Slack “send message” paper plane icon. The dropdown has preset schedules and an option to customize your message’s schedule. Click Custom Time to set your specific time.

• Edit the preferred time and date, which can be as far as 120 days into the future.

• Click Schedule Message to complete the task.

Can you schedule recurring messages on Slack?

Let’s say you want to remind your team about a meeting agenda on a regular basis. Can you automate messages in Slack so that they receive daily reminders?

With Slack’s Workflow Builder, this is an easy task.

Follow this step-by-step guide to start sending scheduled recurring messages from Slack:

• Slack has a great workflow example you can download and use as a template.

• Head over to the app and click the three-dot More icon in the left sidebar.

• Select Automations.

• Click Workflow builder.

• Click Import.

• A local directory will pop up. Click on the .Json file you just downloaded.

• Edit the workflow name.

• Add a new step in between or below the two steps, or edit them to better fit your needs.

• When editing, select who you want to send the message to. From there, edit the message itself, as well as include and customize a button if you want. Check out the preview at the bottom of the page, and hit Save when you’re satisfied.

• Tip: you can also make a copy before you publish.

• Hit Public and you’re in business!

The benefits of scheduled messages in Slack

No more burning through your Slack integrations limit

In the free Slack plan, you only get 10 integrations per workspace.

This new native feature means you can free up space for a shiny new integration.

So, now you have the space to try out one of these 47 Slack integrations instead, and maximize your team collaboration experience.

No more paying to schedule Slack messages

Previous Slack integrations that gave you the ability to schedule messages were great. But they came with a messaging limit.

For most, after your first 10 scheduled messages, you needed to become a paid customer.

With the introduction of Slack’s own scheduled messages, there’s nothing to pay for, outside of your existing Slack plan.

No more messages past your bedtime

At the end of the day, there will always be people who check their phones the second they hear the Slack notification sound.

Just because they do check their messages doesn’t mean they should check them, however.

Not being able to shut off can result in disrupted sleep patterns, stress, anxiety, and burnout.

Using Slack Scheduled Send can help members of the team relax so that they don’t feel the need to always be available for work messages. It helps draw a proverbial line in the sand between work activities and personal time.

How Mio deals with scheduled Slack messages

Now that you can schedule Slack messages, we've been have asked how Mio helps in a cross-platform communication scenario.

For example, what happens when you schedule a Slack message that needs to reach a user on Google Chat (whose accounts are synced with Mio)?

Our API works by fulfilling requests from your Slack account to team members using other collaboration platforms like Google Chat or Zoom Team Chat.

This means that when you schedule a cross-platform message to someone else, Mio will still deliver the message at the appropriate time.

Slack Scheduled Send and Mio’s cross-platform APIs can – and do – work hand-in-hand.

Start sending messages from Slack to Google Chat here.