Message Scheduling
The Message Scheduling feature is only available for use with Messaging Services.
With the Programmable Messaging API, you can schedule SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp messages to be sent at a fixed time in the future.
Message Scheduling is included in Engagement Suite. Scheduling a message is free; you’ll only pay for a message once it is sent. For information on Engagement Suite pricing, see the pricing pages for SMS/MMS or WhatsApp.
Before you begin
You first need to understand how to send outgoing, non-scheduled messages with Messaging Services. If you haven't done so, check out How to Send SMS with Messaging Services before you proceed.
If you want to schedule WhatsApp messages, you must have an approved WhatsApp sender added to your Messaging Service's Sender Pool. You also need to have pre-approved WhatsApp templates.
Schedule an outgoing message
A "scheduled message" is a Message resource with a Status of scheduled.
When you want to send a normal (non-scheduled) message via the Programmable Messaging API, you create a Message resource. You also need to create a Message resource when creating a scheduled message, but with the addition of two parameters: ScheduleType and SendAt.
Required parameters
The parameters required to create a scheduled message are listed below.
| Required parameter | Required value | Additional information |
ScheduleType |
fixed |
This parameter/value combination indicates to Twilio that the message should be sent at a fixed time in the future. |
SendAt |
a datetime string in ISO-8601 format (e.g., |
This is the date and time at which the message will be sent. Messages must be scheduled at least 15 minutes before the intended send time. This means that the Messages must be scheduled no more than 7 days before the intended send time. This means that the *Scheduling up to 35 days before is available in Pilot with limited access |
MessagingServiceSid |
the Messaging Service SID from which the message will be sent |
Note: Without a |
|
|
the content of the scheduled message (e.g., |
|
|
|
the recipient's phone number (e.g., or the recipient's channel address (e.g., |
|
Twilio's response
Twilio's response to your POST request indicates whether or not your message was scheduled successfully.
- If your
POSTrequest to create the scheduled Message resource was valid, Twilio returns a201 (scheduled)HTTP status code. - If your request was invalid, Twilio returns a
400HTTP status code.
A scheduled Message resource has a Status of scheduled. You can check the status in the body of the response from Twilio, or by fetching the Message resource.
Note: No status callback event is emitted when a message is scheduled.
You should save the SID of the scheduled Message resource in case you need to cancel sending the message. This is found via the sid property of Twilio's response.
Below is an example of a response from Twilio, with the status and sid properties highlighted.
{
"account_sid": "ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
"api_version": "2010-04-01",
"body": "This is a scheduled message",
"date_created": "Mon, 29 Nov 2021 22:40:10 +0000",
"date_sent": null,
"date_updated": "Mon, 29 Nov 2021 22:40:10 +0000",
"direction": "outbound-api",
"error_code": null,
"error_message": null,
"from": null,
"messaging_service_sid": "MGXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
"num_media": "0",
"num_segments": "0",
"price": null,
"price_unit": null,
"sid": "SMXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
"status": "scheduled",
"subresource_uris": {
"media": "/2010-04-01/Accounts/ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/Messages/SMXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/Media.json"
},
"to": "+15558675310",
"uri": "/2010-04-01/Accounts/ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/Messages/SMXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.json"
}
Send-time failures
Sometimes, a Message is successfully created with a Status of scheduled, but the message fails at the SendAt time. Two of these cases are covered below.
User-opt outs
User opt-outs do not automatically cancel scheduled messages. Scheduled messages to users who have opted out fail at the SendAt time.
If a user opts out of receiving messages, you can cancel the remaining scheduled messages to that user. See the "Cancel a scheduled message" section below for more information.
WhatsApp template validation failures
WhatsApp requires that business-initiated notifications sent by your application be templated and pre-registered, with the exception of messages sent as a reply to a user-initiated message. Check out Twilio's WhatsApp docs for more information.
Validation of pre-registered templates occurs at the SendAt time, not when the Message resource is created. Messages that don't use a pre-approved WhatsApp template fail at send time.
Cancel a scheduled message
To cancel a scheduled message, update the Message resource so that the Status is canceled.
A canceled status callback event is emitted when a Message resource's status transitions to canceled.
An example API request to cancel a scheduled message is shown below.
Maximum number of scheduled messages
Each Account (including Subaccounts) are allowed up to 500,000 scheduled messages (i.e. Message resources with scheduled statuses) at any given time. Subaccount limits are separate from the parent Account and do not consume the parent Account's allocation.
Additional resources
Need some help?
We all do sometimes; code is hard. Get help now from our support team, or lean on the wisdom of the crowd by visiting Twilio's Stack Overflow Collective or browsing the Twilio tag on Stack Overflow.
