"Send Later" option not appearing in Message app iOS 18

Problem solved. I was testing the ‘send later’ option. It was not available. I was trying to test this option by sending a message to myself. The option was not available to me. I then tried doing the exact same thing, but selected someone else (other than me) to send the greeting to. The ‘send later’ option was available. Problem solved!!

stoatsngroats wrote:

I’ve just checked my iPad and iPhone and have the ‘send later’ button on both, BUT only for conformed iMessage contacts.

for people who have an non iPhone, or an unknown phone, the ‘send later! Button is NOT visible.So, some functionality appears to be there, just not for every phone.

Yes, as has been explained repeatedly in this thread, "Send Later" only works with other iMessage contacts.

Pscholey wrote:

Once your enter the email address/persons name to who you are sending the email to and complete your message, press and hold the arrow up bottom to the right of the recipient’s name to whom you are sending the message to. You will see 4 options of what to do and ‘send later’ is one of the options.

As has been noted repeatedly in the year since the person you're replying to posted this, the option is only available if you're messaging someone else with iMessage.

No option to send later if sending a test message to yourself! How I normally check things out in Messages. First thing that didn’t work. Weird. Used another iPhone recipient, and option was there. For green bubble receivers won’t be there either.

The update stipulates that the “Send Later” function is only for IOS users via messenger. Does not work for SMS.

Really a bummer because Apple is the only one what doesn’t have this text function. It’s disappointing. Hopefully, this will be resolved.

Based on what everyone is saying Apple Support is in denial when it comes to customer feedback with the Send Later function. Apple Support, the issue is real and has not been fixed. Find a fix!

My specific situation: Send Later does not appear as an option unless I am texting another iPhone user. I tried to find a work around. The closest I got was when I created a new message (no recipients). I was able to use the function, but as soon as I put the contact in (an Android user) the message went from looking like a scheduled message back to a normal message. The blue box showing when it was scheduled went away and Send Later was no longer an option when pressing the + button. But it worked fine when I tried the same for an iPhone user.

I’ve just checked my iPad and iPhone and have the ‘send later’ button on both, BUT only for conformed iMessage contacts.

for people who have an non iPhone, or an unknown phone, the ‘send later! Button is NOT visible.So, some functionality appears to be there, just not for every phone.

HTH

Step 1 - remove the androids from the To: box.

remodelor wrote:

Same deal 2 days and it’s gone. Bizarre for sure

• You cannot send messages to yourself.
• Send Later is only available when sending to other users who have iMessage turned on.

Samson_1 wrote:

Based on what everyone is saying Apple Support is in denial when it comes to customer feedback with the Send Later function. Apple Support, the issue is real and has not been fixed. Find a fix!

There is no fix because it's not broken.

My specific situation: Send Later does not appear as an option unless I am texting another iPhone user.

Yes, that's the way it's supposed to work. The feature only works with iMessage users.

Note: You must be using iMessage with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, watchOS 11, visionOS 2, or later. 

Schedule a message on iPhone to send later - Apple Support

Same for me. After some trial and error, I think the option only appears if you’re sending to other iPhones. So if the recipient is an Android user (or a group with at least one SMS user), you won’t see the option.

[Edited by Moderator]

I found the send later option only appears if the person you’re sending to has an iPhone.

carly_thomas1 wrote:

I didn’t look at how old this thread is but I’ve spoke to Apple and the option to send later only is visible on our iPhone if we are sending a message to another iPhone user.

Yes, that's been stated repeatedly on every page of this thread. And in Apple's Support document. Reading even a page or two of this thread would have made that clear.

For some reason in my message settings, I-message had been turned off, so send later now appears.

Restarting my phone worked. It made it appear.