WhatsApp Tests Delayed Messages: From 10 Minutes to Two Weeks

WhatsApp is testing scheduled message sending. A scheduler has turned up in the messenger's Android beta that lets users delay delivery by anywhere from ten minutes to two weeks. WaBetaInfo published the find, and TNW pointed to a side effect: the main business use case for such a feature, work messages outside working hours, is regulated across much of Europe. Judging by the description, a delivered message also carries no "sent on schedule" label.

What was found in the beta

The feature currently exists only in a test build for Android. This is a standard WhatsApp pattern: code first appears in the beta, enthusiasts like WaBetaInfo notice it, and only then do some users get the feature. Some test features never reach release at all, or ship in altered form. So everything below describes the state of the beta, not the final product.

According to the find, the parameters look like this:

• minimum delay: 10 minutes;
• maximum delay: two weeks;
• test platform: WhatsApp Android beta;
• "scheduled" label on a delivered message: not found;
• status: test, no official announcement.

The range is unusually wide. A ten-minute delay lets you avoid writing at an awkward moment. A two-week delay is effectively a reminder or a birthday greeting. Telegram, Gmail, Slack and Outlook have long covered these scenarios, and iMessage added scheduled sending in iOS 18. With an audience of billions, WhatsApp remains one of the last major messengers without this option.

Where the conflict with European law arises

The scheduler's main work purpose is obvious: a person finishes writing messages in the evening or on a weekend, and the recipient sees them on Monday morning. The sender doesn't intrude on anyone's time off and comes across as more considerate. But the same mechanism works in reverse. A boss can queue messages in advance for 22:00 or for Saturday, and formally nobody wrote anything outside working hours.

Several European countries have a right to disconnect: France enshrined it back in 2017, and Spain, Portugal, Belgium and other states have similar rules. The specific requirements differ, but the idea is shared: an employer should not demand a response outside working time. A message that arrives at 21:40 creates exactly the pressure these rules try to remove, regardless of when the sender pressed the button.

The missing label makes the problem worse. The recipient cannot tell a live message from a scheduled one. In a dispute with an employer, that deprives them of an argument. For companies, it creates risk: a WhatsApp conversation in which messages appear to have been sent outside working hours could become evidence in a labor dispute. If Meta adds an indicator before release, some of these questions will go away. No such indicator is visible in the test so far.

How to use it in practice

For ordinary users, the feature is useful without caveats: reminders, greetings, messages to people in another time zone. For work chats, it is wiser to agree on rules in advance. Scheduled messages are best set for the start of the recipient's working day, not for the evening or weekend. Teams in Europe should check how their internal communication policies fit with the scheduler, especially if work correspondence happens in WhatsApp rather than in a corporate messenger. If you have beta access, test the feature, but don't build critical processes on it: until the official release, the behavior, limits and presence of labels may change.

WhatsApp has not given a timeline. The next step is either a wider test or dropping the feature, and the decision on the label will show how much Meta takes the European regulatory context into account.