After years of waiting, WhatsApp is finally making one of its most requested messaging features available to select iPhone beta testers. Here are the details.
Scheduled messages are almost here
Although Meta doesn’t typically break down active user figures by platform, Mark Zuckerberg said in April last year that WhatsApp had more than 3 billion monthly active users worldwide.
Ironically, despite being used by more than a third of the world’s population, WhatsApp still lacks some features that competing platforms have offered for years. Concrete example: the ability to schedule messages.
Earlier this year, WABetaInfo reported that code references in the WhatsApp beta suggested the company was working on a message scheduling feature, although it was not available for testing at the time.
Now, according to the site, the feature is finally rolling out to select iOS beta testers, less than two weeks after debuting on the Android beta.
Here’s how the feature works, per WABetaInfothe report of:
Users can schedule a message from the chat interface. After typing the message in the chat composer, they need to long press the send button. WhatsApp opens the schedule messages screen with a date and time picker. Users can scroll down the page and tap the green button at the bottom of the screen to confirm. The button displays the exact delivery time before users schedule the message. After scheduling a message, WhatsApp displays a confirmation in the chat, but it is only visible to the user who scheduled it.
WABetaInfo notes that messages can be scheduled as little as 10 minutes in advance or up to two weeks in advance, and that scheduled messages appear in a dedicated section in the chat information screen or on the group information screen for group chats.
Interestingly, in group chats, scheduled messages are only delivered to users who were already members at the time the message was scheduled. Anyone who joins the group afterwards will not receive it, even if they join before the message is sent.
The site also states that in addition to scheduling text messages, users can schedule messages containing photos, videos and links. However, a current limitation is that users cannot schedule multiple photos or videos at once, meaning each media item must be scheduled separately.
As is often the case with beta features, scheduled messages are only available to select testers, with no way to enable the feature manually. It’s also unclear when it will launch publicly, although with testing underway on iOS and Android, a wider rollout could happen sooner rather than later.
To read WABetaInfoThe full report, follow this link.
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