In case you haven’t noticed, WhatsApp, a 16-year-old app, still doesn’t let you send scheduled messages. But that’s about to change soon, as Meta is finally looking to bring this feature to one of the most popular messaging services in the world.
A new menu item in group info pages called “Scheduled Messages” was spotted in a recent TestFlight beta of WhatsApp. This means Meta is already testing the feature, and we can expect to see it in a public version sometime in the future. However, it’s currently only available in test builds, as not even beta users can try it out yet.
When this feature arrives, users will be able to write a message and set a specific time for when they want to send it. Once a message is scheduled, it will appear in a dedicated section inside the chat window. When the set time arrives, scheduled messages will send automatically, without any further action from the user. Right now, the reference shows this feature will work in group chats, but it’s reasonable to assume it’ll also be available in individual conversations at some point.
Right now, users have to use various workarounds if they want to send scheduled messages on WhatsApp. On iOS specifically, you can create a shortcut with the Shortcuts app, while Android users can turn to third-party apps - though these are risky due to WhatsApp"s policies against unofficial tools, which can lead to account issues.
It’s worth mentioning that the scheduled messages reference was only spotted in a test build for iOS, with no mentions about Android and Web versions of the app. We’ll see if it’ll appear across these platforms too, or if Meta plans to exclusively release it for iOS first.
Even though scheduling messages has been an existing feature in many message services, such as Telegram and iMessage, Meta hasn’t been in a rush to add it to its apps. Facebook Messenger, which is soon leaving the web, also doesn’t have a native ability to send scheduled messages.
Meta has actually been quite busy implementing various new features to WhatsApp. For example, we’re also getting voice and video calls on WhatsApp web soon. What’s even more refreshing to see is that none of these new additions are AI-related, which means companies can still improve their services for users without pushing AI on every corner.
Source: WABetaInfo (via 9to5 Mac )