Scheduling SMS and time zones

Scheduling a send

In the SMS Center, compose your message and choose recipients as usual, then:

1. Click the clock button in the toolbar to open Schedule send.
2. Pick a Date and Time. The dialog shows which time zone applies right in the header.
3. A green Will send at preview confirms the exact moment — for example, "Thursday, March 12 at 9:00 AM."
4. Click Schedule, then confirm with Schedule SMS in the toolbar (the send button changes its label when a schedule is set).

Your scheduled time appears as an amber chip in the toolbar. Click the small × on the chip to clear the schedule and go back to immediate sending, or click the chip itself to pick a different time.

Past times are rejected — if the moment you picked has already gone by, you'll be asked to choose a future time.

Which time zone is used?

The picker always works in your campaign's time zone, not your computer's. This matters more than it sounds: if you're traveling, or your organization spans regions, "9:00 AM" means 9:00 AM where your campaign and its audience live — the dialog header tells you exactly which zone that is, and the Will send at preview spells out the resulting moment so there's never ambiguity.

Tip: Your campaign's time zone is part of its settings. If the zone shown in the scheduling dialog looks wrong, fix it in your campaign settings before scheduling — future scheduled sends will follow the corrected zone.

What happens after you schedule

• The blast appears immediately in History with a Scheduled status.
• Your recipient list and message are stored exactly as composed — editing the composer afterwards doesn't change a blast that's already scheduled.
• One important exception: opt-outs are honored at send time, not schedule time. When the blast fires, every number — team roster, manually-entered, and uploaded alike — is re-screened against the Do Not Call lists, and each team's SMS-consent setting is re-checked too. Anyone who opted out (including by texting STOP) between scheduling and sending is skipped automatically.
• When the moment arrives, the blast fires automatically and its status moves through Sending to a final state, with full per-recipient delivery tracking like any other blast.

Cancelling a scheduled blast

A scheduled blast can be cancelled any time before it starts sending: open the blast in History and use its cancel action — the status flips to Cancelled and the send never fires. Once sending begins, cancelling is no longer possible; you'll see "Too late — this blast already started sending."

Picking a good time

• Mid-morning (9–11 AM) and early evening (5–7 PM) in your audience's local time consistently perform best for fundraising texts.
• Avoid early mornings, late nights, and mealtimes — texts feel far more personal than email, and a badly-timed one costs goodwill.
• For rally-day campaigns, schedule the "we're live!" text the night before so it fires on the dot without you watching the clock.

Related articles

• Sending SMS to your teams
• Consent, quiet hours, and compliance
• Tracking delivery: sent, delivered, failed