Scheduled Send

Why sending emails at the right time matters

It's 11 p.m. and you've just finished a client proposal you've been working on all evening. You could send it now. But your client is in London, it's 4 a.m. there, and you'd rather it land at the top of their inbox during their working day, not buried under everything else they wake up to. 

Scheduled send solves this without you having to remember to come back to it. Write the email when you're ready, pick the delivery time, and move on.

Beyond time zones, scheduling has another use: it protects boundaries. Sending work emails at midnight signals "I work at midnight and expect responses accordingly." Scheduling that same email for 9 a.m. Monday lets you work whenever you need to without broadcasting it to your contacts.

Spark's research shows that email timing significantly affects open rates. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings tend to perform best for professional messages. Scheduled send makes that timing effortless.

How scheduled send works

You compose your email as normal. Instead of hitting Send, you click a dropdown or secondary button to choose a send time. The email moves to a Drafts or Scheduled folder (depending on the client) and sends automatically at the specified time. 

A few things to understand:

In Gmail, scheduled emails are stored on Google's servers and will send even if Gmail isn't open. You can have up to 100 scheduled emails at once.

In Outlook's classic desktop version, the app needs to be running and connected at the scheduled time. New Outlook and Outlook on the web work from Microsoft's servers, so they're more reliable for scheduled delivery.

 In Spark, scheduled emails are server-side. They send even if Spark is closed on all your devices.

How to schedule an email

In Gmail: 

1. Click Compose and write your email
2. Click the down arrow next to the blue Send button
3. Choose Schedule send
4. Pick a suggested time or click Pick date and time for a custom option
5. Hit Schedule send to confirm

Your scheduled email sits in the Scheduled folder in the left sidebar. To cancel or reschedule, open the Scheduled folder, open the email, and click Cancel send.

In Outlook (new version):

1. Compose a new email
2. Click the dropdown arrow next to Send
3. Select Schedule send
4. Choose from suggested times or pick a custom date and time
5. Hit Send to confirm

 Note: Schedule send in Outlook only works for Microsoft 365, Exchange, and Outlook.com accounts. It won't appear if you've connected a Gmail or other IMAP account to Outlook.

In Spark:

1. Compose or reply to an email in Spark
2. Find the Send Later button in the email window (top right in full-screen mode, top left in compact view)
3. Click Send Later and choose a time from the preset options or set a custom time
4. Spark saves the email in the Outbox and sends it automatically at the scheduled time

To edit a scheduled email in Spark, go to the Outbox folder in the sidebar, find your message, and click Edit Draft. You can change the time or content before it sends. All scheduling features like Snoozes, Reminders, and Send Later all work for any account type, which is useful if you're juggling multiple accounts.

Making scheduled send work for you

Can I use scheduled send for emails to people in different time zones?
Yes, and it's one of the best uses for it. Calculate when it's morning for them and schedule your email to arrive then. It's a small thing that makes you look more considerate.

Can I still edit a scheduled email after I've set it?
Yes. Emails waiting to send sit in your Scheduled folder. You can open, edit, or cancel them any time before they go out — so a useful habit is to write emails in batches, schedule them, then do a quick review of the Scheduled folder before bed.

Should I use scheduled send for apologies or urgent messages?
No. If something needs to go now, send it now. Scheduled send isn't the right tool when timing is critical.

Can I stop emails from going out late at night automatically?
Some apps let you set a default "send during business hours" option, so nothing goes out at odd hours by accident. It's worth checking if your email client supports it.

Related content

• How to schedule an email to be sent later 

Related terms 

• Automated email reply
• AI email writer
• Queued email
• Snooze an email