# Scheduling posts Clarify is not only for moderating what comes in. From the [Schedule](https://clarify.net.au/schedule) page you can compose a post and send it to your connected accounts, now or at a time you choose. Anyone in the workspace can compose and save drafts; actually publishing or scheduling needs the **Publish posts** permission (members without it send their drafts for approval instead, see below). Every post is written and approved by a person; Clarify never posts on its own.  ## The calendar The Schedule page is a month calendar. Scheduled posts sit on the day they will go out. Drag a post to another day to reschedule it (rescheduling, like scheduling, needs the Publish posts permission). The post keeps its time of day, so a 2pm post dropped on Thursday goes out at 2pm Thursday. You cannot drag a post into the past: days that have already gone fade out while you drag, and dropping there does nothing. If you want a post out straight away, open it and press **Post now**. Click a day, or the **New post** button, to start composing. ## Composing a post The composer opens as a panel beside the calendar. In it you: - Write your text. - Add images or video if you want them. - Pick which connected accounts to post to. - Choose to publish now or schedule for later. Clarify checks each account's rules as you go, so you cannot schedule something a platform will reject. For example, Instagram and TikTok both need an image or video; text alone cannot go to them. Accounts that cannot take your post are shown as unavailable. ## Photos and a video in the same post You can attach photos and a video clip to one post, but not every platform can publish them together: - **Instagram and Threads** publish the lot as a carousel (on Instagram that means a carousel, not a Reel). - **Facebook, TikTok and X** take either photos or a video in a post, never both. When your post has both kinds and a Facebook, TikTok or X account is ticked, a **Send: the video | the photos** row appears under that account so you choose what it gets. The video is the default. The account's button says which half is going, and the results after publishing say the same. If you want both on Facebook, publish the post with one pick, then **Duplicate as draft** and flip the pick for the second. ## Photo posts and music on TikTok TikTok can take a photo post (a swipeable set of up to 35 images) as well as a video. Photo posts are silent on TikTok unless they carry a track, and a silent set looks broken there, so when a TikTok account is set to receive photos a **TikTok music** section appears in the composer. It offers three trending suggestions you can preview, and a **Find a trending track** search by genre and name. Everything offered comes from TikTok's Commercial Music Library, which is cleared for business accounts to use. Nothing is added unless you pick a track, and you can press **No music** to remove your pick. Video posts keep their own sound. Your TikTok connection needs the photo posting permission for this. Accounts connected before photo posts were available do not have it yet, so if a photo post to TikTok fails with a permissions error in its results, reconnect that account from [Settings](https://clarify.net.au/settings/platforms) and try again. ## Tagging accounts Use the **Tag accounts** field to mention other accounts in your post. Type a handle and press enter to add it as a chip; add as many as ten. When the post goes out, the handles are added to the caption as @mentions. This works on Instagram, Threads and TikTok, where the mention links to the account. On Facebook they appear as plain text, because Facebook's tools do not allow reliable tagging of other pages. ## Framing images for Instagram Instagram only accepts images between 4:5 (portrait) and 1.91:1 (landscape). When you add an image and Instagram is one of your accounts, an **Instagram preview** appears so you can see exactly how it will look, and choose how each image is framed: - **Auto** (the default) pads the image to fit with nothing cut off. - **Square**, **Portrait**, or **Landscape** set a specific shape, with **Fit** (pad with a white border) or **Fill** (crop to fill the frame). Your choice only affects Instagram; other accounts get the original image. There is nothing to do if you are happy with Auto, your post will just work. ## A cover image for a video A video's cover is the still people see before they press play. Each platform picks a frame of its own unless you give it one. When a video is attached, a **Cover image** row appears under it: press **Add cover** and choose a JPEG or PNG, and it shows on the video right there in the composer. **Replace** or **Remove** it any time before the post goes out, including after you have sent it for approval. Facebook and Instagram use your cover. On Instagram, a Reel's cover is shown tall (9:16), so a wide or square cover is placed whole on a tall canvas with a soft blur of itself behind it, nothing is cut off. TikTok and Threads do not take a cover from outside apps and will keep picking their own frame, which the row says so there are no surprises. ## Drafts and scheduling Save a post as a draft to finish later, or schedule it. Scheduled posts are sent automatically at their time by Clarify's background worker, so your computer does not need to be open. If a post fails to publish (or only reaches some of its accounts), the person who wrote it and the workspace owner are alerted straight away, in the app and by email, with a link to the post's results. Once a post has gone out you can see how it performed on the [Publishing Dash](https://clarify.net.au/publishing). ## Sending a post for approval Want sign-off before it goes out, or composing without the Publish posts permission? Press **Send for approval** in the composer. Pick a reviewer and your intended time, and the post is held as **Awaiting approval** on the calendar until they release it from the [Reviews](https://clarify.net.au/reviews) queue. The reviewer can edit it, message you back and forth, approve it to go out on your chosen time (or immediately, if you picked Post now), or reject it back to your drafts with a note. See the Reviews and approvals article for the full flow. Your drafts are gathered below the calendar, where you can sort them and pick up where you left off. On a published post's results you can also **Unpublish** it to remove it from a platform, on Facebook and Threads, which allow this. ## Doing more from the calendar The Schedule page can do more than one-off posts: - Connect your office diary so events sit alongside your posts, and use the **Show** filter to choose what appears. See [Your diary calendar](https://clarify.net.au/help/your-diary-calendar). - Let Clarify write a first draft for you, from an event or from a topic you type. See [AI post drafts](https://clarify.net.au/help/ai-post-drafts). ## Publishing to X An X (Twitter) post is limited to 280 characters as X counts them (a link counts as 23, most emoji as 2). The counter under the text switches to X's count as soon as an X account is ticked. X also charges for every post, so publishing uses X credits: 3 for a post, or 40 if it contains a link, and the same again for a first comment. The X account's button shows what the post will use before you schedule it. See [X (Twitter) and X credits](https://clarify.net.au/help/x-and-x-credits). ## Which platforms can I publish to? Publishing support is rolled out per platform as each one clears its app review with the platform. Where a platform is not yet available for publishing, you can still compose and schedule; the post goes out once support is live. Check the composer for the current list of available accounts. ## Media and storage Images and video you upload are stored so the platforms can fetch them, and are cleared a while after the post has gone live. You do not need to manage this; it happens automatically.