The Secret iPhone Trick That Will Add Some Fun To Your Texts

By Dave Basner

October 22, 2020

If you're an iPhone user who texts a lot, you've probably sent a friend a message wishing them a happy birthday or congratulating them on a momentous achievement of some kind. The first time you did that, you were likely surprised by what happened. Apple actually put some special animations in the Messages app so that when you write "happy birthday" to someone, balloons fill the screen, and when you send a text that says "congrats" or "congratulations," there is a burst of confetti. There's similar excitement with fireworks when you write "Happy New Year" or "Happy Chinese New Year."

It turns out though that those aren't the only text-prompted Easter eggs the tech company included in the app - there is another, much lesser known one as well. If you type in the phrase "pew pew," you'll be treated to an exciting laser light show!

There isn't much of a purpose to it, just to add a little bit of fun to texting.

If you like that though, you can actually send it, or something like to it, with everything you write. All you have to do is press down on the blue send button after writing your text. It'll bring up a menu that gives you options on how the text bubble appears to whomever you're writing to. It might slam down with the Slam effect or disappear with the Invisible Ink one.

Meanwhile, if you move the slider at the top from "bubble" to "screen," then you can send any message with a spotlight, confetti, balloons, a heart, fireworks, a shooting star, have it repeat all over the screen, and more.

Your iPhone is just full of surprises!

Photo: Getty Images, Dave Basner

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