How to Use Slack for Scheduling Messages, Meetings, and More

Your work revolves around a schedule. Wouldn't it be nice if your favorite work tool helped you manage your schedule? Slack represents your virtual workspace where you can communicate with your team and plan your workday effectively. When it comes to managing your schedule, Slack provides a way to schedule messages, meetings, and more.

So in this post, we'll explore how to use Slack for scheduling messages and meetings.

How many times have you typed in a message but didn't press the send button? You probably thought it was not the best time to send it. Maybe you wanted to rewrite the message. Or you simply didn't wish to bother the person at the time. In these cases, you might want to schedule a message to send at a later time, rather than sending it right away

We can easily schedule messages in Slack. Let's see how.

Schedule a Message

First, head over to the conversation or a channel where you want to schedule a message. Type in your message:

Next to the send button, there's a dropdown for message sending with an option to schedule the message for later. Click on it:

Once you do that, a popup menu should open up. You can choose when you want to schedule this message to send:

We'll choose Custom time from these options. This will let us set our own custom time to send the message. In the next step, we'll add the scheduled time for the message:

After choosing the date and time, click on the Schedule message button. You've now scheduled a message to send later in Slack!

See and Edit Scheduled Messages

After you schedule a message, you'll see a prompt to See all scheduled messages. Click on this:

That should open the Scheduled section in Slack. You can also directly access this from the left quick panel in your Slack workspace. It will appear once you've scheduled a message. Here, you can see the message you've scheduled, the time it's scheduled for, and where the scheduled message will be delivered.

We can also edit a scheduled message. Hover over the message and click on the edit icon that looks like a pencil:

That should let you directly edit the message text. You can also change the scheduled time of the message by clicking on the clock icon next to the edit icon.

You can change the date and time you've set for the scheduled message here. Further, you can also cancel or delete the scheduled message altogether:

Finally, it's time for our scheduled message to appear! Your scheduled message will automatically appear at the scheduled time like any other regular message on Slack on the general channel for all users to see:

That's how simple it is to schedule messages on Slack. Remember, scheduled messages cannot be sent as replies to a conversation or a thread. Let's now take a look at how we can schedule meetings in Slack.

How to Use Slack for Scheduling Meetings

Your Slack workspace runs in the background regardless of what you're working on. Besides messages, Slack lets you schedule meetings with your teammates in the comfort of your Slack workspace.

Install Meetings App on Slack

You'll need to install a calendar service app like Google Meets or Microsoft Outlook. For this tutorial, let’s go ahead and install the Google Meets app in Slack.

In your Slack desktop app, you can click Apps at the top of the left sidebar or click More if you don't see it right away. Then you can click the Browse Apps button.

That should land you on the Slack apps page where you can search for Google Calendar and further install the app:

Otherwise, you can directly head over to the Google Calendar app on Slack. Then, click on the Add to Slack button:

Once you do that, Google Calendar should ask for the necessary permissions in your Slack workspace. You'll also need to authenticate your Google account during this process.

 Make sure you’ve given all the required permissions. Once you do that, the Google Calendar Slack app should be installed in your workspace. You'll get a notification from Slack and Google Calendar:

You can see all the apps installed in the Slack workspace under the Apps section, located at the bottom of the left panel:

Scheduling a Meeting With Google Calendar

Now that you've installed the Google Calendar app in our workspace, let's see how you can use it to schedule meetings directly from your workspace. Go to the Google Calendar app and click on the Create event button:

This allows you to create a calendar event, like a meeting, via Slack and invite others to the scheduled meeting. You should now get a calendar form modal, as shown below:

Add the event details by entering the event's name, adding any guests you want to attend the meeting, and setting the event time. Add these details to the form and click the Create button:

That's it! You've scheduled a meeting with your teammates in just a few steps without leaving the comfort of your Slack workspace! After you create the event, it appears in the list of events in your Google Calendar app section:

You can view the event details by clicking on the triple dots:

And subsequently selecting the View event details option in the menu:

You can also delete any events you create here. Based on your notification settings, the Google Calendar app will automatically notify you on Slack regarding your scheduled meetings:

Notice how you get a prompt to turn on status updates for your calendar’s schedule? You can turn it on, and the Google Calendar app will automatically set a Slack status for you whenever you're in a scheduled meeting. You can also use the Google Calendar app to respond to meetings scheduled by someone else who invites you as a guest.

Does Slack Have a Scheduling Tool?

We've seen how to schedule messages internally with Slack. We've also explored third-party calendar apps to schedule meetings from inside our Slack workspace. But the next question is, does Slack have a dedicated scheduling tool? Can you schedule tasks, routines, and recurring messages via Slack?

The answer is no. By default, Slack does not give you a scheduling tool. However, the Slack app marketplace has a ton of scheduling tools you can integrate into your workspace. Let's now look at a scheduling tool that lets you send recurring scheduled messages in Slack.

Schedule Recurring Messages Via Slack Scheduler

First, we'll quickly install the Slack Scheduler app to our Slack workspace from here, as we did the Google Calendar app. Once you install the app, you should get a welcome message from the Slack Scheduler:

Now, go to the General channel. In the message box, click on the + icon for more options. Search for the scheduler app:

Click on the Schedule a message option, which opens a Message Scheduler form:

Now you can fill in the details. You can enter the message text and the date and time you want this message scheduled. Then, set the release message to indicate how you wish this scheduled message to recur. Let’s set this to Each Weekday so the scheduled message goes out every weekday at 7 p.m. Finally, choose the channel or an individual member you want to send this message.

Click the Schedule button to schedule the message. You can check it by going to the Scheduler app:

And now, each weekday at 7 p.m., the message automatically goes out on the General channel:

Conclusion

We've explored how you can use Slack to manage and schedule messages and meetings, but that's not all you can do. You can also use Slack to manage and schedule your day-to-day tasks and business processes. However, that's not something Slack offers by default. For that, you'll need to build your own custom workflow or use a powerful tool like Wrangle. 

Wrangle is a purpose-built Slack application for approval and ticketing workflow automation. It automatically assigns tasks and approvals for team members to follow up and take action so they can go about their business and respond when necessary. It is used by finance, sales, IT, marketing, HR, and others to automate ticketing, onboarding, customer refunds, and so much more. If you have a business process, a Wrangle workflow can automate that process in Slack.

If you’re using Slack, you may want to consider adding a product like Wrangle to the mix to streamline workflows. 

Ready to see Wrangle in action? Request a demo today. Better yet, add Wrangle directly to Slack and experience productivity gains shortly thereafter.

‍This post was written by Siddhant Varma. Siddhant is a full stack JavaScript developer with expertise in frontend engineering. He’s worked with scaling multiple startups in India and has experience building products in the Ed-Tech and healthcare industries. Siddhant has a passion for teaching and a knack for writing. He's also taught programming to many graduates, helping them become better future developers.