How to schedule a message in Slack (3 ways, including channel announcements)

Some Slack messages are better sent later: the announcement that should land when the US and Europe are both awake, the reminder that's only useful the morning of the event, the weekly roundup that goes out every Friday whether or not you remembered.

Slack has a scheduler built in, and for one-off messages it's all you need. It gets awkward when you're running a channel or a whole community: recurring posts, announcements that also need to go out on LinkedIn or Discord, and messages that should come from the team rather than your personal account.

This guide covers three ways to schedule Slack messages, from the simplest to the most flexible.

Option 1: Slack's built-in scheduler

Every Slack workspace, including the free plan, can schedule a message:

1. Open the channel or DM and type your message as usual. Attach files if you need them.
2. Click the arrow next to the Send button instead of the button itself.
3. Pick a time. Choose one of the suggested times or Custom time, then set the date and time.
4. Click Schedule message. Slack shows a note above the composer that the message is scheduled.

To see or change what's queued, open Drafts & sent in the sidebar (called Later in some Slack versions) and go to the Scheduled tab. You can edit, reschedule, send now, or delete from there.

It's a good tool with a narrow job. The catches:

• It sends as you. Scheduled messages come from your account. For a personal reminder that's right; for a community announcement it usually isn't.
• It's one message, once. There's no repeat option in the scheduler itself.
• It only knows about Slack. If the same announcement is going to X, LinkedIn, Discord, or a newsletter, those are separate tools and separate schedules to keep in sync when the date moves.

Option 2: Recurring messages with /remind or Workflow Builder

If the problem is "this needs to go out every week," Slack has two built-in routes.

/remind for simple repeats. Type a reminder into any channel:

/remind #team "Submit this week's standup notes" every Monday at 9am

Slackbot posts the text on that schedule until you delete the reminder. Type /remind list to see or remove your reminders. It's quick, but it's plain text from Slackbot: no images, no real formatting, and each reminder is tied to the person who created it.

Workflow Builder for richer repeats. On paid Slack plans, Workflow Builder can start a workflow on a schedule and send a formatted message to a channel. It's more flexible than /remind, but it's built for internal processes, and each workflow is a separate thing to set up and maintain.

Option 3: Schedule Slack announcements with your other content

If you run a community or customer Slack, your Slack messages are content like any other post: they're planned ahead, they often go out alongside social posts, and they should come from the brand, not a person. That's what a scheduler that publishes to Slack is for.

In Schedulin, Slack is one more channel on the same calendar as your social media:

1. Connect your workspace. On the Channels page, click Connect Slack and approve the Schedulin app on Slack's authorization screen.
2. Copy a channel ID. In Slack, click the channel name at the top of the channel and copy the Channel ID from the bottom of the About tab.
3. Write the post. Paste the channel ID into the composer and write your message. Slack formatting works, images render inline, and videos are uploaded as native Slack files.
4. Schedule it, or add it to your queue. The Schedulin app posts it on time and Schedulin saves a link to the message.

Because each post carries its own channel ID, one connected workspace can have launch notes in #announcements and event reminders in #events. The same post can go to Discord, LinkedIn, and X in the same pass, with per-network edits, and if the date moves you drag it once on the calendar.

Public channels are joined automatically. For a private channel, invite the Schedulin app to the channel first. The Slack setup guide covers the details.

Which option should you use?

• A one-off message or a nudge to a coworker: Slack's built-in scheduler. It's free and already there.
• The same short reminder every week: /remind, or Workflow Builder on a paid plan if it needs formatting.
• Community or customer announcements, especially ones that also go out on social media: a scheduler that publishes to Slack, so everything lives on one calendar and posts come from the brand.

If you want to try the third route: Schedulin's Slack scheduler publishes messages, images, and video to any channel in your workspace, alongside every major social network. It's free for 7 days, and plans start at $5/month after that.