A whopping 200,000 iMessages are sent every second. So, it may seem hard to make yours stand out from the fray. Luckily, some secret iMessage effects can spruce up even the simplest of texts. These little tricks can make someone laugh or smile — and they will certainly make your message memorable.
For iMessage Effects, Type the Right Phrase
To trigger an exciting iMessage effect, you have to know which phrases to type. Your iPhone is called a smartphone for a reason. It’s smart enough to recognize when you’re saying something exciting or congratulatory, and it’ll send the screen effects all on its own.
You can probably guess what a few of these might be. But some surprising keywords will trigger a light show – think along the lines of “pew pew.”
1. Happy Birthday
Here’s one of the more obvious ones. If you type and send the words “Happy Birthday,” your iMessage screen will celebrate accordingly.
Once you press send on a “Happy Birthday” text, balloons will fly up from the bottom of the screen all the way to the top. In other words, your iPhone knows that it’s party time.
2. Congratulations
Similarly, your phone knows what to do when congratulations are in order.
If you send the word “Congratulations” or even “Congrats,” your phone will blast some confetti – on screen, of course – when the recipient reads their message.
3. Happy New Year
Here’s another phrase that makes us all think of celebrating. If you’re iMessaging your loved ones at midnight to say “Happy New Year,” then expect a display on your phone screen.
You can probably guess what the screen effect will be here: these three words trigger a fireworks show in your iMessage.
4. Happy Chinese New Year!
iPhones don’t just celebrate the holidays of the Western world. If you text someone to say “Happy Chinese New Year!,” your phone will give you another light show. But this time, the fireworks show has a red-and-gold motif to match the celebration’s colors.
Just make sure you include the exclamation point, as the complete phrase is what triggers the iMessage effect.
5. Selamat
On that note, your iPhone recognizes an Indonesian word, as well. Selamat is part of the phrase said when people break their Ramadan fast — certainly a cause for celebration.
If you text someone the word “Selamat,” they will get the same confetti shower that comes with the word “Congratulations.”
6. Pew Pew
Not all secret screen effects have to do with holidays, though. You may just want to make someone laugh with an iMessage display.
Well, that’s where this iMessage trick comes in. If you type “pew pew” on your iPhone and press send, your screen will see some colorful lasers darting across it.
This trick’s a great one for impressing your friends – send “pew pew” to the group chat and see who is impressed by your cool iMessage trick.
Pick Your Own iMessage Screen Effects
If none of the above fits what you’re trying to say, you’re in luck. You can still send iMessage with effects, you just have to know where to find them.
You’ll start by typing your message in the text box as you normally would. When you finish, don’t tap the arrow as you normally would. Press it and hold it.
When you do, you’ll be sent to another screen, one full of text effects. At the top, you’ll see two options: bubble and screen.
Bubble Effects
The first set, the bubble effects, will change the way your text bubble looks it arrives in the recipient’s inbox. Your options are:
- Slam, which makes your text into a giant bubble that drops dramatically into place and creates a dust cloud before returning to its traditional size
- Loud, which also makes your text bubble larger and shakes it so that the reader really pays attention to it
- Gentle, which maintains the same bubble size, but makes your text slightly smaller
- Invisible ink, which turns your text into a bubble full of floating particles until the recipient taps it to reveal the message inside
You can get great use out of these text effects, but they’re not the only ones you can have up your sleeve.
Screen Effects
You can also swipe over to the Screen Effects tab to find some more options. As you can probably guess, these fill the screen, rather than simply changing up the text bubble itself.
These are your choices under the screen effects tab:
- Echo, which fills the screen with a flurry of text bubbles to make sure the reader really sees your message
- Spotlight, which turns the screen black, then places an orb of bright white light over your text
- Balloons, the same ones that float up when you send the words “Happy Birthday”
- Confetti, the colorful shower that you see if you text someone and say “Congratulations”
- Love, during which a giant, red, heart-shaped balloon inflates and floats away from behind your text
- Lasers, which creates a light show from behind your text bubble, just as the words “pew pew” do
- Fireworks, which turns the screen black and sets off a virtual fireworks show, just like sending “Happy New Year” does
- Celebration, another fireworks show, but with golden fireworks — the same you see if you send “Happy Chinese New Year!”
Once you select your effect, all you have to do is press the arrow next to it to send your message.
Send Messages With Flair
Now that you know these iMessage effects — some more secret than others — it’s time to send some messages with flair.
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