After Gmail and Telegram, you can now schedule chats and texts on Google Messages

Gmail and messaging apps like Telegram already allow you to schedule messages. Now, Google Messages is going to offer you that too. The schedule messages functionality showed up for a few users as a part of an a/b test in the beginning of November, according to Android Police, and now this feature is starting to roll out more widely. For now users in the US are getting the functionality, other Google Messages users across the world should be getting it soon.

The new function replaces the long-press shortcut for sending an MMS with a subject.

Since the feature is just rolling out, it might still take a little time before users can schedule messages on their phones.

Also Read: Google’s RCS messaging now available globally

You can check if you have gotten the feature by tapping on and holding the ‘Send’ button in a chat. This should either open the schedule dialogue or the old MMS subject interface. However, this is only going to be visible if your phone is turned on and has an active connection at that time.

If the schedule dialogue pops up for you, you can choose from a collection of predefined times and dates or select a specific moment of your choice. The scheduled message will show up on the chat as a preview - you can tap on that to delete it or change the text.

Now, if the long press on ‘Send’ shows you the schedule dialogue and you want to add an MMS subject line, you will have to look for the new ‘Show’ subject field entry in the three-dot overflow menu in the top right corner of a chat.