A LITTLE-KNOWN iPhone texting trick can make you less annoying.
The easy-to-miss feature has left iPhone owners “obsessed”, and it only takes seconds to find.
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Apple has stuffed its iPhones with loads of clever tricks that you might not know about.
And fans took to Reddit to share “the most underrated iPhone feature you actually use every day”.
Users flocked to reveal their most beloved tips like Apple AirDrop for quickly sharing files, searching pictures by keyword, and the anti-motion-sickness dots.
But one user earned hundreds of upvotes (or likes) with their texting tip.
“I love the ‘Send Later’ option for texting,” they wrote.
“There are so many times I want to text someone but then realise it’s too late/early/not the right time.
“And I don’t want to forget so I use the Send Later option. I use it a lot.
“At the top of my text I add ‘Sent on delay’ so the person knows I’m not available if they decide to text me back.”
One user replied saying they were “obsessed with this one”.
Another said: “I use it to remind my ex husband to give our son medicine, or put something in his school bag.
“The man’s memory is that of a sieve, and he doesn’t seem to be able to set reminders for himself. So I can be a nagging ex wife even if I’m not there.”
Another wrote: “Oh this one is great. Thank you!”
And one added: “I use this a lot (night owl married to a 10pm – 6am). I’ll send him a text at 2am to deliver at 6pm.
“Totally confuses him. Every. Single. Time. Even though I’ve literally shown him how it’s done.”
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And one user even vowed to use the feature to send messages from the afterlife, writing: “I’m gonna be so annoying even after I die with this lol.”
HOW TO SCHEDULE MESSAGES ON IPHONE
The feature is called Sent Later, and it’s meant to make you less annoying.
It means you can schedule texts rather than waking people up in the middle of the night – or disturbing them when they’re busy doing something else.
Apple explains: “If it’s too late at night or too important to forget, you can schedule a text message to be sent at a later time.
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The feature was added with iOS 18 in September – check if you’ve got that in Settings > General > Software Update.
Then you’ll be able to schedule a message for up to 14 days into the future.
Go into Messages, then tap on the plus (+) symbol, then cbhoose Send Later.
Now tap on the time to open up the schedular and pick the time that you’d want your text to go out.
iOS 18 devices – can your iPhone get it?
Here are the devices that can get the new iOS 18 update
- iPhone SE (2nd generation)
- iPhone SE (3rd generation)
- iPhone XR
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 13 mini
- iPhone 13 Pro
- iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 14 Plus
- iPhone 14 Pro
- iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 15
- iPhone 15 Plus
- iPhone 15 Pro
- iPhone 15 Pro Max
- iPhone 16
- iPhone 16 Plus
- iPhone 16 Pro
- iPhone 16 Pro Max
- iPhone 16e
Picture Credit: Apple / The Sun
Once you’ve done that, you’ll see the border of the text field turn into a dashed line.
The time that your message will be sent should appear above the message.
Now tap out the text that you’d like to send, and then tap on the blue arrow to schedule it.
The message will appear with a dashed line until the sending time – and it’ll be delivered even if your devices are offline.
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However, you’ll need to be online when you’re actually scheduling the message. Once that’s set up, you’re free to go off-grid.
You can change the delivery time by tapping Edit beside the date, then choosing a new time.
Or you can select the Send Message option to send it immediately.
And you can change the contents of your text by holding down on the message then choosing Edit. You can also delete a scheduled text in this way.
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