The iMessage Feature That'll Make Your Emojis Even More Exciting

Emojis are a very handy way of adding much-needed emotion to text-only messages. How do we know if somebody's kidding? Sometimes we don't, unless they add a silly winking face to the end of a missive.

It's certainly true that some of us are guilty of overusing the emoji (Brandwatch reported in January 2018 that 10 billion of them were sent every day), though, and they can apparently tell an awful lot about us. The fact is, they've gone from simple emotional barometers to something far, far beyond that. Not only are there movies about these little things, but a lot of services that use them have employed neat little secrets involving them. iMessage has a great one.

With any messaging service, it's sometimes more about the filters and bizarre screen effects than the content of the message itself. iMessage users have a wide range of them to choose from, including Invisible Ink, the classic face filters, and everything in between. After having hours of fun with the preset options, though, there's another hidden feature utilizing your favorite emojis that you may have been unaware of. Here's how it works.

iMessage has long been known to implement hidden secret effects (sending a message including the word "congratulations" to a fellow iPhone user will set off a flurry of confetti, for instance), and it's enough to make you think that the humble emoji might be a little outdated. To use the secret involving emojis, though, follow these simple steps:

1. Open an iMessage conversation with your intended recipient.

2. Insert an emoji, or up to three different ones (the effect doesn't work with more than three), of your choosing.

3. Long-press Send.

4. At the top of the Send With Effect screen, you'll be presented with two tabs: Bubble and Screen. Bubble is the default, so select Screen instead.

5. The Echo option, which typically "animates" the bubbles of your text, can do the same for emojis. Check out the preview, then select and send the message.

The evolution of the emoji has certainly been impressive to behold. Not too long ago, we had access to smileys, at best. Iconic as they are, they just don't have the same impact as a good emoji overload. Though this has been possible since iOS 11 in 2017, many users are still unaware of the existence of this exciting feature. If you and another iPhone-owning friend have a predilection for emoji (even if their device is a little older), you owe it to yourselves to give it a try.