I use my iPhone’s stock Messages app all day, every day, to communicate with my partner, friends, and family. As such, I’m always messing around with features like stickers, animated GIFs, and Apple Intelligence-powered custom emoji abominations.
Sometimes, I’ll discover something “new” that I’ve never stumbled upon before, which is what happened last week when I managed to “animate” an emoji while playing around with text effects.
Use Text Effects for Simple Animations
Not to be confused with message effects which have been available since 2016, text effects were added to the iPhone with the release of iOS 18 (and also work on any Mac with macOS 15 Sequoia or later). They allow you to add simple effects to your messages like a “Nod” effect that makes the text bob up and down and an “Explode” effect that causes your message to erupt.
You can access these effects by typing a message, selecting the text before you send it, and then tapping the “Text Effects” option in the pop-up context menu (you’ll need to swipe left in order to see it). Pick one and you’ll get a preview of your effect in action, after which you can send it using the usual method.
Little did I know, this also works when sending emoji. Not only do emojis sent along with messages move like the rest of your text, effects also apply to messages that only include an emoji. When you send a single emoji, it appears much larger than a regular message. Sending three emojis appears only slightly larger, whereas sending more will appear at the same size as your text message.
It’s worth noting that this only works withother iMessage users. That is to say the person receiving your text will need to be using an iPhone, iPad, or Mac in order to see your animations. A quick way to tell is whether or not your outgoing text messages have a blue bubble, which indicates that the iMessage protocol is in use. If you see green message bubbles, you’re using SMS orits successor RCS, and these effects don’t work.
This is far from a revolutionary tip, but it’s something simple you can do to liven things up a bit. I’m particularly fond of the “Nod” and “Shake” effects for indicating yes or no with your choice of face emoji. I’m also having fun with the
“Jitter” and “Explode” effects to make certain emojis vibrate or a whole group fly off the screen. Simple things for simple minds, I guess.
This Should Work Using Stickers Too
I’ve also had success getting this working with custom emoji and static stickers. When youadd a sticker to your iPhone, you have the option of adding it as a looped animation from a Live Photo or as a still. If you opt for a still, the sticker will appear under the “Stickers” section in the Emoji picker.
From here, this behaves like any other emoji. It too should follow your text effects rules, nodding or shaking or exploding based on whatever you pick. I’ve noticed that I don’t always see the animation on my Mac, which seems to indicate a bug in the macOS Messages app that Apple will hopefully fix before long.
Forget implementing the long-overdue enhanced version of Siri or patching zero-day exploits—making my custom cat stickers nod should be the top priority for Tim Cook and the gang.
Screen Effects Pair Well With Emojis Too
Message effects are another way of jazzing up a dull message, accessible on an iPhone or iPad by tapping and holding the blue “Send” button. On a Mac you’ll find these under the “+” plus menu using the “Message Effects” button.
Use “Slam” and “Loud” to emphasize your emoji, or use my personal favorite “Echo” screen effect to flood the screen with your emoji of choice. Yes, these work with custom emoji, but only one at a time (as opposed to standard emoji, where the effect works regardless of how many you have).
The effect will only play once, the first time your message is viewed, but you can hit the “Replay” button to relive that moment over and over again…
Apple Messages isset to get even better in iOS 26with Live Translation, message filtering, and more customization options on the way to make chats stand out. you may also installthird-party apps to get more out of iMessageright now by adding polls, games, and a wider array of media.
There are also some important fundamentals that every iMessage user should master, includingunsending or editing messages, scheduling messages to besent at a later date, and protecting children’s devices with theApple’s Communication Safety feature.
