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Schedule Messages in Slack and Teams So They Land in Working Hours

You think of something at 9 PM, or your teammate is eight hours ahead. Sending now means a notification at the wrong time. Not sending means you forget. Both Slack and Teams let you write the message now and pick when it goes out. This guide covers the steps, how to change your mind, and the messages you should not schedule.

Miles Crawford

Miles Crawford

5 min read
A night-time chat window with a crescent moon and a morning chat window with a sun, joined by a clock and a paper airplane carrying a message bubble from one to the other
This image was generated with AI

When scheduling helps

Scheduling fits messages that are useful but not urgent:

  • A question or update for someone in a different time zone, sent at the start of their day.
  • A reminder you want to appear before a meeting, not three days earlier.
  • Something you wrote late at night that does not need to look like you were working late.
  • A weekly note you want to land at the same time each time you send it.

Microsoft describes the Teams feature the same way: schedule a message for a date and time that respects collaboration across locations and working hours.

Schedule a message in Slack

Slack's help says you can send messages in real time or schedule them to send later.

  1. Open the channel, DM or thread and type your message. Add attachments, emoji, mentions or formatting as usual.
  2. On desktop, instead of pressing Enter, click the arrow icon next to the paper plane icon and choose when to send it.
  3. On mobile, tap and hold the paper plane icon to schedule it for later.

To see what is waiting, click Drafts & sent at the top of your sidebar and open the Scheduled tab. Hover over a scheduled message to see options such as editing and deleting. On mobile, open Drafts & Sent from the Home tab, tap Scheduled, then tap and hold a message to edit, reschedule, send, cancel or delete it.

Schedule a message in Teams

The steps are the same for a chat message and a channel message.

  1. Write your message, then select Actions and apps.
  2. Select Schedule message.
  3. Pick the date and time in the pop-up and click Continue.
  4. Select Send. Teams delivers it at the time you chose.

To change it, hover over the scheduled message and select Edit. Use the down arrow next to the date and time to pick a new time, then select Continue and Done. To remove it, open More options on the message and choose Delete. Microsoft says you can edit or cancel a scheduled channel message at any time before it is posted.

Two limits from Microsoft's articles: you must already be in a conversation with the person before you can schedule a chat message to them, and Teams on Android does not currently support scheduling channel messages. Check the article for your device if the option is missing.

Make a scheduled message read well

A message that arrives later is read in a different moment than the one you wrote it in. A few habits, which are our suggestions, keep it from going stale:

  • Write the date and time out. "Tomorrow" will be wrong if the message sends a day later than you planned. Write "Thursday, 3 PM CET" instead.
  • Name the time zone. "3 PM CET" is clear to everyone. "3 PM" is not.
  • Start with what you need. "Can you review the draft by Friday?" works as a first line. Context can follow.
  • Use one emoji at most, with a word. A 📅 in front of a date helps people scan, but the date itself must be written out.

What not to schedule

  • Anything urgent or safety related. Send it now and use whatever escalation your team has. A scheduled message waits, and a problem does not.
  • Bad news or sensitive feedback. Say it live, or send it when you can be there to answer. A scheduled message about someone's work or job lands without you in the room.
  • Anything that depends on facts that may change. If the plan could change before it sends, re-read the message that morning, or cancel it.
  • Messages that quietly work around someone's out of office or do not disturb time. Scheduling is for being considerate. It should not be a way to put pressure on someone who is away. Our out of office guide covers how to set that status.

If your company has rules about what may be said in chat, scheduling does not change them. Your employer's policy decides what you may send and when.

A quick routine

Once a week, open Slack's Scheduled tab and check what is still queued, and in Teams look for scheduled messages in the conversations where you set them. Delete the ones that no longer apply. If you are handing work over to someone, the shift handoff guide shows what to include. For a light way to confirm someone saw a message, ask for a 👍 or ✅ reaction. Best reaction emojis for work has more that read clearly at small sizes.

Sources

Checked October 15, 2026. The steps and limits follow each product's own help articles. The wording habits and the routine are our suggestions.