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Q. Someone told me that I could schedule Gmail messages to be sent later. Do I need a special app or something to do this?
It would be very handy to schedule my email to send later, but I’m hoping it’s easy to do. If it’s complicated then chances are I won’t do it.
Thanks for your helpful tips at The Wonder of Tech!
A. You’re very welcome. And thanks for your question, I get the best article ideas from readers’ questions.
You were told the correct information. Yes, you can schedule emails to be sent later in Gmail. Good news, you don’t need an app, Chrome extension or any other tools to be able to schedule your emails to be sent later.
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Gmail, Google added new features to its email service. One of these features is Schedule Send, giving Gmail users the ability to send email messages at a time and day that’s convenient for them.
No more need to send out messages immediately, or save them as a draft and hope you remember to send them out later. Now you can compose an email and tell Gmail when you want that message to be sent.
Want to impress the boss? Schedule an email to be sent late at night to show you’re working hard during your off-hours. Want to give your co-workers a break? Schedule emails to be sent during office hours and let them enjoy their weekends. Want to send an email to someone in a different time zone? Schedule the message to arrive during their waking hours.
Note that the time you schedule an email to be delivered must be a future time. Gmail doesn’t have a time machine that lets you schedule an email to be delivered in the past. If you miss a deadline for an email to be sent, Gmail can’t help you, yet…
How to Use Gmail to Schedule an Email to Be Sent Later
Scheduling a Gmail message to be sent later is incredibly easy to do. You can use this feature when you are sending a new email message, replying to a message or forwarding a message to another recipient.
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Using Gmail Schedule Send on a Computer
After you’re finished writing your message, don’t click the Send button. Instead, click the arrow next to the Send button. A button will appear that says Schedule send.
Click Schedule Send and a window will appear suggesting times and days you may want to send your message. You can click one of those times or you can choose a different time to send it.
Click Pick Date & Time to schedule a message to be sent later. Choose the date and time when you want the message to be sent, then click Schedule send.
Gmail will show you a confirmation that the message is scheduled to be sent.
Using Gmail Schedule Send on the Gmail App
You can also use the Schedule Send feature in the Gmail app. When you’re ready to schedule your message to be sent, don’t tap the Send arrow. Instead, tap the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen. Then tap Schedule send.
As with Schedule Send on a computer, Gmail will suggest dates and times for you to send a message. Or you can pick the date and time when you want your message to be sent.
You’ll see a confirmation from Gmail that the message will be sent at the scheduled time and date.
How to Change a Scheduled Gmail Message Before It Is Sent
Don’t worry if you change your mind and later decide that you don’t want to send the message after all. Before Gmail sends the scheduled message, you can change or delete it.
Note that in the Gmail menu, Scheduled is an option, both on the computer and app versions of Gmail. In the Scheduled section you can see the messages you have scheduled to be sent later.
Click on a message you have scheduled. When the message opens, a Cancel send option will appear. Click that to cancel the scheduled delivery of the email. Canceled emails will appear in the Drafts section of Gmail where you can edit the message and re-schedule it to be sent later, or send it out as soon as you’re finished.
Your Thoughts
Do you like having the ability to schedule email messages to be sent later? When would you use the Send Later feature of Gmail? Did you know Gmail had this new feature?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Hey Carolyn,
Great tutorial on sending scheduled mail which can save our time on our trip or on any work which can save you time at many levels. Yet I have not tried this method and currently I’m using my server based email source would like to sync g suite for this engagement.
Thanks again Carolyn for such tips.
Hi Shameem, Yes, you may not need to use this feature every day. But when you do want to schedule an email to be sent later, it’s easy to do. You won’t need to struggle to remember what to do, Gmail will lead you through the steps.
Very informative. I literally didn’t knew that we can schedule email messages in gmail to be send later. Thanks for sharing this wonderful post Carolyn!
Hi Pratim, Yes, this way of scheduling emails to be sent later is a helpful new feature from Gmail. Scheduling an email is simple to do, once you know how to do it.
I hope you are able to make good use of this Gmail scheduling feature, Pratim.
Hi Carolyn, Thanks for sharing. I use gmail for my personal email and this is good to know.
Hi Lorenzo, Yes, even with personal emails you may want to be able to schedule when a message is sent. With Gmail that is now easy to da!
Hey Carolyn,
Great work,I wasn’t knowing about this feature of gmail,you always manage to tell something new to audience .That’s what makes you great. Thanks for sharing and keep it up.
Hi Abhas, I’m so glad you found this article helpful. Thanks for taking the time to let us know.