By ‘scheduled message’ i mean i can write an IM and hit a button to say “send this message at XX o’ clock” or “send this message in XX minutes”.
It’s an insanely simple functionality that everyone wants but doesn’t come as standard on:- SMS, Whatsapp, Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, Discord (i think) or others.
Is this harder to impliment than i understand or is it susceptible to a vulnerability or exploit i haven’t considered?
In: Technology
It’s really just not a very desired feature for most people
Most messaging apps go for sleek designs, and only show options that most people use. Adding more options bloats the app, and makes it more confusing for the vast majority of people who just want the basics
You can absolutely find apps targeted towards power users, that give all sorts of options like this
Bit of a false premise there, the “everyone wants” part. It wouldn’t be a very useful feature for the overwhelming majority of people. It wouldn’t be that hard to implement (I’m already running through the python code in my head to make such a script, although I can’t imagine why I would need it), but app designers aren’t going to spend time, money, and resources on a feature that relatively few people are going to utilize.
This is going to sound like Stack Overflow, but the answer to this would be, “why would you want to?” I can think of use cases from, say, an advertising perspective, maybe an managerial perspective, but other than that? Most people aren’t going to want to receive pre-scheduled text messages, nor are they going to have any reason to send them.
what is your use case in person to person communication?
i can see how it’s good for announcement chat groups, but if i receive a message i expect it to be able to turn into a real time conversation if i reply within two minutes or something
getting a message at a time when someone is actually unavailable would be quite irritating to me, on the flip side I don’t mind if someone texts me something ony relevant in the morning at 1am
Google Messages and iOS now do that. They’re two of the biggest.
As others said, not many people use it. It’s a niche desire, so why waste programmer time to add it?
Besides from probably not being as desired as you think: it introduces quite a few more error cases. What to do when the device is turned off? Do you actually store the message on a server until it’s due? Do you send it when the device is turned back on? What happens if the cellular signal is bad? Does the OS even allow scheduled events like that (e.g. iOS allows users to turn off background refresh)? Battery life might also be a factor depending on implementation
So basically: a lot more things to keep in mind, especially for a feature that won’t get you any additional users
I’m surprised so many people think it isn’t useful/desired, i think people on reddit are more tech savvy than most
most of my friends has opined that it should exist at some point.
the use cases i think it is good for are:-
reminders before events e.g. text my wife 20 minutes before she leaves home to remindher to bring the sunscreen
not wishing to disturb someone at night/on holiday
holding a text message until business hours or until after business hours
texting a child to do something at the appropriate time like pick up shopping on the way home from school
texting a colleague that a deadline is coming up closer to said deadline
pre-texting a message for a special event like a birthday when you won’t have acess to a phone at the time
time differences in countries/states
sending a text you want to go at a time you know you will be driving
but I guess the answer is unaffected, not enough to demand to justify
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