How to Delay and Schedule Slack Messages

Slack can delay a message, in one specific sense: you schedule it for a chosen time, and until that time you can edit or cancel it. What Slack does not have is an undo-send window after a message leaves, or a setting that delays everything by default. Send means sent.

Scheduling a message

• Write the message as usual.
• On desktop, click the arrow beside the green Send button. On mobile,
long-press Send.
• Pick one of the suggested times, or Custom time for anything else.
• The message waits under Scheduled in your sidebar. Open it there to
edit, reschedule, or delete it before it goes.

Scheduled messages send whether you are online or not. Your machine can be off; Slack's servers hold the message.

Delay versus reminder

A scheduled message arrives in the channel as a normal message. A reminder (/remind me to review the doc at 3pm) pings only you, or the person you aim it at, as a Slackbot nudge. The split:


• • The content should land later: schedule the message.
• • You need a nudge to write it later: /remind.
• • Cross-timezone courtesy: schedule it into their morning instead of your
evening. The timezone converter shows the overlap.

What scheduling does not touch

Two systems people expect it to touch, and it does not:

• Notifications. Scheduling outbound messages does nothing to inbound

noise. Quiet hours live in notification settings, the Z system.

• Your presence dot. Sending at 9am does not make you look online at

9am, and working at 2am does not stay hidden by scheduling alone. The dot follows its own rules, and if you want it to follow working hours instead, a presence schedule is the matching feature on the presence side, which is our product's territory.

Frequently asked questions

Can I delay a Slack message after hitting send? No. There is no undo-send window. You can edit or delete the sent message, which shows an edited mark or a removal tombstone.

Can I schedule a message from my phone? Yes. Long-press the Send button and pick a time.

Do scheduled messages send if I am offline? Yes. The server sends them. Your dot stays gray if you are actually away, which is the status text and dot split.

Is there a way to delay every message by default? Not in Slack. If you want a habit-level buffer, write in the composer and schedule for five minutes out; there is no setting that does it for you.

The short version

The arrow next to Send schedules; the Scheduled list edits and cancels; nothing unsends. Reminders nudge, messages land, and the dot plays by separate rules.