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Your Instagram DMs Just Got Better Thanks to This New Feature

Instagram's new scheduling feature allows you to send DMs on your time. Here's how it works.

Headshot of Jason Chun
Headshot of Jason Chun
Jason Chun Associate Writer
Jason Chun is a CNET writer covering a range of topics in tech, home, wellness, finance and streaming services. He is passionate about language and technology, and has been an avid writer/reader of science fiction for most of his life. He holds a BA from UC Santa Barbara and an MFA from The New School.
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Headshot of Arielle Burton
Arielle Burton Former Associate Content Manager
Arielle Burton was an associate content manager on CNET's Performance Optimization team. She graduated from Hofstra University in New York. Prior to joining CNET, she worked with legacy news (ABC7NY and Fox Business Network) and tech companies (Mashable). She specializes in crafting compelling alerts, building community engagement on news platforms, and optimizing CNET's content for all audiences. Ultimately, Arielle is a digital media professional by day and a fierce chef by night.
Expertise News Platform Aggregation | Alerts | Home Page Curation | Content Optimization
Jason Chun , 
Arielle Burton
2 min read
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The new Instagram schedule feature helps you send messages on a preset schedule.

 Meta/Instagram

It's not always the right time to share everything. Maybe you have an important message (or meme) to send to your Instagram friend, but you know they're still at work. You wouldn't want to accidentally set off their phone notifications. 

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Fortunately, Instagram has a solution. Schedule the message for later.

Instagram just introduced a slate of new updates to enhance your DM experience. You can now invite people to join your chat by sharing a personalized QR code, and you can pin messages to the top of any chat. You can even translate languages directly in your DMs. 

One of Instagram's new features that's bound to benefit many is the ability to schedule messages. 

Go to your DMs and type out a spur-of-the-moment idea, or share a link to an article you just read. Then, if it's an inconvenient time for your friend to receive the message, you don't have to save it somewhere else and possibly forget it -- just schedule it for later.

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Use the DM schedule feature to stay in touch with people across time zones.

 Meta/Instagram

How does Instagram's scheduling feature work? 

Instagram's scheduling feature is hidden and might not seem intuitive at first, but it's easy to use once you know where to look. Here's how to schedule your messages: 

  1. Open your Instagram DMs
  2. Type your message to the person you want to DM
  3. Hold down the send button; the scheduler will pop up automatically 
  4. Choose the date and time you want to send the DM

Once you've hit the Send button, you'll see a confirmation of your scheduled message appear in your chat. Click on it if you want to review the DM. If you change your mind and want to send your message immediately or delete it, you'll see options for both.

You can schedule your messages up to 29 days in advance. You can also schedule a message to send to yourself -- just in case you need to set a reminder and know you'll be checking Instagram at a certain day and time. 

The one limitation of this scheduling feature is that you can't use it for images or video -- you can only schedule text. Still, it's a welcome addition to Instagram's messaging platform, one that borrows a useful feature of email and texting, and expands your possibilities when sending DMs.