Have you ever wanted to send someone a message, but it’s just not the right time? That happens a lot in a world where most work communication is exchanged during daylight hours, but some of your best ideas come to you at the least opportune times (i.e. 2 AM). People usually aren’t going to pay too much attention to texts that are sent at the wrong times. With text scheduling, you can ensure that your message is seen, and seen exactly when you want it to be.. 

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Why Scheduling Texts is Important

However, there is a solution to this problem, and that is scheduling text messages. It allows you to compose the text and get it ready to send, and then have your phone automatically send it at the perfect time. This is a feature that has been seen in email and other forms of communication, but it can be incredibly helpful for people who do most of their professional (or personal) communication over text. 

Modern problems require modern solutions. And even though it might just be a small thing, the ability to schedule text messages is something that can take you higher a world that more and more requires tech-savviness, intelligent communication, and always being right on time. 

One of the most important parts of communication is timing. There are times in the day where our brains are more (and less) receptive to information and communication. Busy schedules keep our minds occupied, and we’re not always open to a conversation. 

You’re not always free to text someone back, and that’s okay! That’s why scheduling texts is so important: You can work with it to send texts at the most opportune times. 

Most people naturally won’t have enough time to respond to everything whenever they want to. It’s even been shown that not checking your phone right after you wake up can make your whole day better. 

Scheduling allows you to work your messages around their time so that you can be sure that your text will be received as effectively as possible. Often, the best time to receive texts is during working hours, such as mid-morning, or the afternoon. 

Any texts received outside of that time frame are more likely to be overlooked and disregarded, even if it’s not on purpose. So scheduling texts for ideal times makes them much more likely to be received and acted upon. 

This leads to marketing campaigns being much more effective, and better at reaching out to people that Community categorizes into specific groups through Clustering. 

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How to Schedule a Text with Community

Community is another way to send text messages. The interface for Community is easy to use  for sending bulk text messages to a large number of people. This makes it incredibly easy for Leaders to send messages to members at the perfect times in their days, and cultivate a much higher level of response. 

This can be done through the campaign menu, where you can schedule your bulk text messages to send at any time. Your scheduled messages will appear in the “Scheduled” tab until the message is sent so that you can alter and edit them any time up until when they are actually sent. These messages will be sent within ten minutes of the scheduled time to whichever Clusters are selected within the app. 

This is one of the best ways to reach out to people at exactly the right time. People are most likely to interact with and open text messages when they are sent at the right time, which can have dramatic effects on how effective text marketing is in various contexts.

Community also offers ways for people to send different text campaigns to different audiences and clusters at different times. Making use of this technique can allow you to reach the right people at the right time, which can maximize the effectiveness of your messages. Some demographics are more likely to interact with text messages at different times of the day, and sending them at those specific times can lead to a much more personalized and genuine experience. 

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How to Schedule a Text on iPhone

For iPhone users, there are a few ways to schedule texts. There are a couple third-party apps that can be used, but these will often cost money, or require giving up some levels of privacy to use. So instead, it’s usually best to just use the pre-existing apps that are inside of your iPhone. 

There are generally two options for this, those being the reminders app and the shortcuts app. The processes for doing this can be fairly complicated, but with a little familiarity around the more niche parts of the iPhone, scheduling texts can be easy. 

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Using the Reminders App

This method doesn’t actually send the text itself, but it instead creates a reminder to send a text message, while having the full text ready to be copied and pasted into iMessage. 

1. Open the Reminders App. 
2. Click the “New Reminder” button. 
3. Create the title, and then click on the “i” details button on the right of the text box. 
4. In the “Notes” section of the details window, compose the text message. 
5. After that, put in the date and time of day that you want to send the message. 
6. Click “Done.” 
7. When the Reminder shows up, copy the text in the “Notes” section of the reminder, and paste it into the iMessage text window, and click send. 
   

There is a little more work in this method than just picking a time and sending a message. However, this method creates a lot of flexibility, and ensures that you have a chance to look back over the text before you actually send it. This can be helpful to make sure that there are no mistakes in what you sent, and can be great for editing purposes. 

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Using the Shortcuts App

This method is actually fully automated, which can be very useful. However, there is a little bit more upfront work that needs to be done. Here is how the process works. 

1. Open the Shortcuts App. 
2. In the “Automation” window, select “Create Personal Automation.” 
3. Select the “Time of Day” automation. 
4. Select a time of day, and set the repeat selection to “Monthly.” Choose the day that you want to automate the message to send, and then click “Next.”
5. In the next window, press “Add Action.”
6. In the Actions window, select “Send Message.”
7. Compose the message that you want to send, and then address it to the recipient who you want to receive the message. After that, click next. 
8. The automation will show you a summary of what you have set up. If it all looks good, click “Done.” 
   

This will automatically do the action that you prescribed. If it is set to “Ask Before Running,” it will double check with you before sending. But if you check it off, then it will send automatically without you having to worry about it. This is the most automated way to send texts within the iPhone’s native apps, and can be very helpful if used properly. 

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How to Schedule a Text on Android

Sending scheduled texts on Android can tend to be a lot easier than iPhone users. The interface for doing it just tends to be a lot simpler and easier to use, with much fewer steps to remember. It’s important to be using the latest version of Google Messages, which is a standard messaging app on many Android devices. Here is how Android users can schedule their text messages. 

1. Open up Google Messages
2. Compose your text message, but don’t fully send it. 
3. Tap and hold the “Send” Button for a few seconds. The “Schedule Send” window should appear. 
4. The window will show you a variety of preset times that you can send the message at, or you can select the “Pick Date and Time” option. Select whichever one of these you need. 
5. Once the date and time are selected, press the send button. It will show a timer next to the text message, indicating that it hasn't been sent yet, but will at the designated time. 

This process is fairly simple, but it will only work for standard text messages, and not iMessage. This is standard with Android phones, however, so it shouldn’t be a problem. 

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Why Community is Important

Knowing the right time to reach out to people over text is highly important for maximizing the efficiency and efficacy of a text message. Sometimes, that time is different based on where someone is, who they are, and what their interests are. 

Community helps you to categorize all of these people’s needs so that you can more effectively reach out to them, and therefore, allow them to more effectively reach out to you. This is done through the Clustering feature that creates categories for people and allows them to receive personalized interactions. 

Good communication is all about creating a direct line of communication between two people, and sending it on your end at the right time will help to foster better communication between you and your members. Timing is everything in creating real interactions, and the scheduling features of Community allow Leaders to actually talk with their Members at times that best fit their needs. 

Community is very intentional about making sure all of these small details are taken care of so that you can connect with your communities in the most effective ways possible. Every text message that is sent out can be responded to directly by the Leader, which cultivates actual dialogue and communication. The whole point of Community is to create increased connection and develop genuine relationships between you and the people who you care most about: your fans, followers, and members. 

If you’re looking for the next step in developing a genuine way to market and engage as a leader, Community is the best way forward. Check us out, and get your number today! 

Sources:

In Defense of Not Replying to All of Your Text Messages | Repeller

3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Check Your Phone Within 1 Hour Of Waking Up | Medium

Why you're more creative at night and how to reproduce the effect | Creative Something