How to Schedule a Message on Discord: One-Off and Recurring Posts

Many messages on a server are predictable: the reminder about game night, the pointer to the rules, the announcement at the start of the week. If you write them by hand every time, sooner or later you forget one or post it at the wrong time. It is better to schedule the Discord message and let it go out automatically at the right moment.

In this guide you learn what Discord itself offers, how to set up one-off and recurring messages with Lizbot and what to watch out for with times and time zones. At the end you find ideas for posts that are actually worth putting on a schedule.

Can Discord do this on its own?

Short answer: no. Discord still has no feature that lets you write a normal message and have it sent automatically later. The request has been coming up in Discord's feedback forum for years, but it has not been built.

What does exist are two related tools:

• Server events: At the top of the channel list under Events you create an event with a location, start time and description. Members mark themselves as interested, and Discord notifies them when it starts. The event does not send a message of its own with text or an image, though.
• Dynamic timestamps: If you write <t:1793988000:F> in a message, Discord shows every member the date in their own time zone. With :R instead of :F you get a relative time such as "in 3 days". The number is a Unix timestamp, in this example 6 November 2026 at 18:00 UTC.

So for real scheduled messages you need a bot or a webhook with your own script. For most servers a bot is the easier route, because you do not have to host anything yourself.

One-off or recurring: what fits where?

Before you start, take a quick look at which kind of message you actually need.

The rule of thumb: if the message goes to everyone and its content is known in advance, it is a scheduled message. If you need people to say whether they are coming, use an event. If it is only about you, /community remind is enough. The ways to actually reach all members are covered in Sending a Discord message to all members.

1. Create a scheduled message in the dashboard

Scheduled messages are included in every plan, Free as well, and switched on by default. They have no switch of their own: they run with the Social alerts module. Only admins can create, edit, pause and delete scheduled messages.

1. Open the dashboard, pick your server and click Scheduled messages under Automate in the sidebar.
2. Click Message.
3. Under Channel, pick the target channel, for example #announcements.
4. Enter the date and time under Send on.
5. Leave Repeat set to Once.
6. Write your Text, up to 2,000 characters.
7. Check the preview below the form and click Save.

The message then appears in the list with its channel, repeat setting and next send time. A one-off message does not disappear after it has been sent: it stays in the list as paused, marked "sent 1×". If you want to send it again, open it with the pencil icon, set a new time and save, and it is active again. Use the toggle to pause a message, the pencil to edit it and the bin to delete it.

You can use placeholders in the text: {guild.name} inserts the server name, {guild.memberCount} the current member count. This makes recurring posts feel more alive, for example "There are now {guild.memberCount} of us, thank you!".

2. Set up a recurring message

For regular posts, choose an interval under Repeat: Hourly, Every 6 hours, Daily or Weekly. The date field is then called First send. From that moment on, Lizbot repeats the message at the interval you chose.

Here is how to set up a start-of-week post for every Monday at 9:00, for example:

1. Click Message and pick the channel.
2. Set Repeat to Weekly.
3. Set First send to next Monday, 09:00.
4. Write the text and save.

From then on the post arrives every Monday at the same time. If you want to pause it for a while, say over the holidays, switch it off in the list instead of deleting it. If you switch off the Social alerts module, Lizbot sends nothing, but recurring messages stay scheduled and carry on once you switch it back on.

Be generous with the interval. An hourly notice in a busy chat quickly feels like spam, and members will mute the channel.

3. Design the message with an embed

Plain text is easy to miss in a busy chat. With the Attach embed toggle your scheduled message gets a coloured box with a Title, Description and Color. Discord formatting such as **bold** and line breaks works in the description. The text above it is optional: a message only needs either text or an embed.

For more elaborate messages with an image, thumbnail, footer and up to five link buttons, use the Embed builder under Automate. There you save embeds as templates and post them again whenever you like, also with /server embed send and the name of the template. /server embed list shows all saved templates. The embed builder is also fully included in the Free plan. Find out more on the Embeds page, and tips on structure and design in the guide Create a Discord embed.

A handy trick for rules or info boards: instead of posting them again and again, use Or replace an existing bot message in the embed builder with the link to that message. That keeps the channel tidy.

4. Mention roles without annoying people

A scheduled announcement often needs to reach a specific group. You mention a role in the text with <@&role ID>. To copy the role ID, go to Server Settings > Roles and right-click the role. This only works if Developer Mode is switched on under Advanced in your Discord settings. Important: scheduled messages don't ping roles. The role shows up as a mention in the message, but its members don't get a notification. The same goes for @everyone and @here. Only individual members you mention with <@user ID> are notified.

If you need a real role ping, send the announcement at the right moment through the embed builder: messages sent there ping mentionable roles, but not @everyone or @here. New streams and videos are announced automatically with a ping role by social alerts. Ping roles that members pick up themselves, such as "Event ping" or "News", work best for this. How to set them up is explained in the guide Set up Discord roles.

5. Personal reminders with /community remind

Not every reminder needs to be seen by the whole server. With /community remind every member sets a personal reminder, no dashboard needed:

• /community remind set dauer:2h text:Moderator meeting reminds you by DM in two hours.
• You enter the duration (dauer) as 30m, 2h, 1d or 1w, or combined like 1d12h. Anything from one minute to one year works.
• With the hier option the reminder arrives in the current channel instead of by DM, with a mention of you.
• /community remind list shows your open reminders with their number, /community remind delete id: deletes one of them.

Each member can have up to 25 open reminders per server. If someone has turned off DMs from server members, the DM reminder will not reach them. In that case the hier option helps.

6. Event reminders for dates with RSVPs

For game nights and meetups, Lizbot's Events are a better fit than a scheduled message. The module is included in Free but switched off at first, so turn it on under Modules. Lizbot posts the event with the buttons Going, Maybe and Not going, and sends everyone who said yes a DM before it starts. People who do not accept DMs are mentioned in the event channel instead. If you want, Lizbot also creates the event as a Discord event, for which it needs the "Manage Events" permission. If the date isn't fixed yet, find one first with a scheduling poll on Discord.

The Free plan allows one reminder per event, Pro and Studio up to three, for example one day before, one hour before and shortly before the start. More on the Events page.

Choosing times and time zones correctly

Times are the most common source of mistakes when scheduling. There are three things you should know:

The dashboard uses your own time zone. The time you enter under Send on applies in your browser's time zone. If you schedule 19:00 from a computer in the UK, the message arrives at 19:00 UK time. If several admins schedule from different countries, everyone should keep that in mind.

Repeats run at fixed intervals. For Lizbot, daily means exactly 24 hours after the last send. When the clocks change between summer and winter time, the send time therefore shifts by an hour. A post that arrives at 9:00 in winter shows up at 10:00 after the clocks go forward at the end of March. After every clock change, quickly open your recurring messages and set First send to the next date at the time you want.

International servers need neutral times. If you write "today at 8 pm" in the text, that is only right for some of your members. Use Discord's dynamic timestamps such as <t:1793988000:F>, and everyone sees the right time for them. For recurring posts a relative hint works better: "Game night starts in an hour" is true everywhere. All formats and common mistakes are explained in Creating Discord timestamps.

Which time works well depends on your community. With school and university students, afternoons and early evenings are strong; with people who work, it is more the evening. Under Analytics in the dashboard you can see on which days people write the most. For the time of day, watch for a week or two when the chat is busiest, and schedule important posts just before that peak.

Ideas: posts that run on their own

• Weekly recap: Lizbot has its own Weekly report in the sidebar for this. Once a week it sums up what happened on the server and goes out on a weekday and at a time of your choice, either to a channel or by DM to the owner and admins. The report is included in every plan. A few extra sentences from Liz with notable trends and a suggestion are available from Pro.
• Event reminder: If you have a regular game night every Friday, schedule a weekly message for Friday afternoon with a link to the voice channel. For individual dates with RSVPs, use Events.
• Rules reminder: Once a week, a short, friendly reminder of the two or three most important rules in the main chat. Keep it short and point to the rules channel instead of repeating everything.
• Start and end of the week: A question to kick things off on Mondays, and on Fridays a call to share screenshots or wins from the week. Posts like these get conversations going; you find more ideas in the guide Grow your Discord server.
• Poll or application deadlines: A one-off message two days before a deadline reminds everyone who has not taken part yet.
• Partner and promo notices: Recurring notices about partner servers or your channel on a video platform. New videos and streams, on the other hand, are announced automatically by Lizbot through Social alerts, so you do not need a schedule for those.

Checklist

• the Social alerts module is switched on, it also controls scheduled messages
• Lizbot can send messages and embed links in the target channel
• time checked in your own time zone, preview looked at
• the interval suits the channel, no hourly spam in the main chat
• role pings not through scheduled messages, but through the embed builder or social alerts
• recurring messages checked after the clocks change
• outdated messages paused or deleted

Common mistakes

• Lizbot cannot write in the channel: The message is lost, but the attempt still counts as sent. A one-off message is then paused: fix the missing permissions, open it with the pencil icon and set a new time.
• Time in the past: The dashboard rejects this when you save. Check the date and time, especially after midnight.
• Outdated content: A weekly post saying "Sign up by 15 March" keeps running in April. Only put dates in one-off messages.
• Too many automatic posts: If the bot writes more than the members, the server feels empty. Better a few well-chosen messages.
• Scheduled message instead of an event: For dates where people sign up, an event is the better choice, because it only reminds those who are interested.