Timeless Messages – Guardian-Triggered Delivery
A Timeless message has no fixed delivery date. Instead of scheduling it for a specific moment in the future, you entrust its delivery to one or more Guardians – people you trust to send it when the time is right.
Timeless messages are designed for the situations where you know a moment will come, but you can’t know exactly when.
[PLACEHOLDER: Screenshot of the Timeless toggle and Guardian assignment panel]
When to Use a Timeless Message
Timeless messages are ideal for:
- Legacy letters to be read after you pass away
- Messages to a child to be opened when they reach a milestone (graduation, marriage, parenthood) – where the exact date is unknown
- Notes to a loved one during a difficult period, to be delivered when a Guardian feels the moment is right
- Any message where a precise future date doesn’t make sense
Switching to Timeless Mode
In the composer, look for the delivery mode toggle below the recipient picker. Switch from Scheduled to Timeless.
Automatic switch: If you select a recipient who has no email address on their contact record, the composer automatically switches to Timeless mode. This is because date-scheduled delivery relies on email – without an email address, the system can’t automatically deliver on a set date.
Assigning Guardians
After switching to Timeless, a Guardians panel appears in the composer. Here you select which of your Trusted Contacts will be responsible for triggering this message’s delivery.
You must have at least one contact promoted to Guardian before you can assign one here. See Promoting a Contact to Guardian if you haven’t done this yet.
To assign a Guardian:
1. Tap or click Assign Guardians in the panel
2. Select one or more Guardians from your list
3. Optionally add a private note for each Guardian – this note is visible only to them, not to the recipient
Guardian Permissions
For each Guardian you assign to a Timeless message, you can control exactly what they are allowed to do:
| Permission | What it allows |
|---|---|
| Trigger delivery | The Guardian can manually send the message to all recipients. This is always enabled for Timeless messages – it’s the core purpose of a Guardian. |
| Edit recipients | The Guardian can add or remove recipients on your behalf |
| Update delivery date | The Guardian can convert the message to Scheduled and set a specific delivery date |
| View message content | The Guardian can read the full message body (off by default) |
Privacy note: By default, Guardians cannot read the content of your message. They only know that a message exists and that they are responsible for triggering it. Enable “View message content” only if you want your Guardian to be able to read what you’ve written.
Free Plan: Timeless Message Limits
Free plan users receive 3 lifetime Timeless messages at no credit cost, with the following restriction:
- Text only – no image, audio, or video attachments
- Once you have used all 3, you will need to upgrade to Standard or higher for additional Timeless messages
Paid plan users (Standard, Pro, Pro Max) have no limit on Timeless messages and can include any combination of text, images, audio, and video.
How a Guardian Triggers Delivery
When a Guardian decides the time has come:
- They log into their MessageFuture account (or open the app)
- They navigate to the Guarded Messages section – a list of all messages they are protecting
- They tap Trigger Delivery on the relevant message
- A confirmation prompt appears – they confirm the action
- MessageFuture delivers the message to all recipients immediately, via email and push notification
All other Guardians assigned to that message are notified that delivery was triggered.
Storage Guarantee
Timeless messages are stored for a guaranteed 20 years from the date they are created. The storage expiry date is set automatically when the message is finalised and is visible on the message detail screen.
Proceeding Without Guardians
If you finalise a Timeless message without assigning any Guardians, the composer will warn you. You can still proceed – but no one will have the ability to trigger delivery unless you later assign a Guardian by editing the message.