A prepared audience can change before release. Recipients may opt out, offers can expire and sender approvals may still be pending. Recheck those conditions when the scheduled send starts.
What does a campaign schedule need?
A campaign schedule needs an audience, a message and a release time resolved for each recipient group.
An SMS broadcast coordinates shared content, personalization, scheduling and recipient outcomes. A batch API request groups independent messages. Those workflows need different preparation and tracking.
Can I schedule an individual Bird SMS request?
Schedule the API call in your application. The individual SMS endpoint does not hold a message for a future time.
The individual send operation rejects scheduled_at with 422 SMSUnsupportedFeature.
Persist the intended send time and message identity in your scheduler. Keep retry protection attached to that identity to detect duplicate attempts after an uncertain response.
Before submitting, recheck consent and sender readiness because either can change while the message waits. Check whether the message is still useful before releasing it.
How do I send at 9 a.m. local time?
Group recipients by a reliable time zone, then resolve the local hour to the correct instant for each group.
Use a named time zone so your scheduler accounts for daylight-saving changes. A clock change can make a local hour occur twice or disappear. Define which release instant your scheduler uses in those cases.
A phone number's country code does not establish the recipient's time zone. Some countries span several zones, and people travel while keeping their numbers. Ask for a relevant time zone or use an existing preference with a clear policy for unknown values.
For example, one recipient group may be three hours ahead of another. Its 9 a.m. release must happen three hours earlier. Separate release instants preserve the intended local hour for each group.
How do quiet hours affect the schedule?
Quiet hours exclude certain local times from the permitted sending window. The applicable rules depend on the recipient, sender and message purpose.
Check whether a rule concerns initiating a message or its delivery. A sending timestamp and a delivery report describe different events. A country summary may omit local restrictions.
The individual SMS endpoint does not defer sends around quiet hours. To honor quiet-hours restrictions, your integration must hold covered messages until the permitted window. Recheck permission at release because a recipient can opt out while a message waits.
Does a scheduled start guarantee delivery at that time?
A scheduled start establishes when processing may begin. It does not guarantee when each phone receives the message.
SMS throughput, message length, network conditions and recipient availability affect delivery. The schedule records intended release. Delivery outcomes record what happened to the messages.
Include the offer’s expiry so recipients know whether they can still act on it. Your scheduler should withhold stale content.
What should I check before scheduling?
- Confirm the audience's permission and the applicable sending window.
- Resolve each local hour using a reliable time zone.
- Check personalized content, segment count and sender readiness.
- Recheck eligibility before release.
- Track delivery outcomes after release.
In short
Store a time zone alongside the intended local hour.
A country code does not establish where a recipient is or which clock applies.
Campaign scheduling and individual sends are separate operations.
Bird's individual SMS endpoint rejects scheduled_at. An API integration must schedule the call itself.
Recheck consent when releasing the message.
Someone can withdraw permission after you prepare a campaign.
A start time does not guarantee an arrival time.
Capacity, network conditions and recipient availability affect delivery.