One of the coolest aesthetic features of iMessage is its animated message effects. If you're like many users, you might even have discovered them by accident, where wishing your friend a "Happy Birthday!" or congratulating them on a promotion suddenly floods your screen with balloons or confetti. Apple's iMessage effects first appeared in iOS 10 and still work perfectly in the most current iOS versions. While Apple has only formally mentioned a few of the words and phrases that trigger these effects automatically, we've compiled a list of all those we could find — with different languages included.

Triggering iMessage Effects To use these iMessage effects, you'll need to create a message with another iPhone user. Effects will still show animations on your end while texting your green-bubbled Android friends, but they won't be able to see it themselves. If you don't have a friend with an iPhone to test effects out on, you can try it by messaging yourself. In a few cases, a simple trigger word or phrase will apply the screen effect automatically. While Apple hasn't included all of these in its official list, some Googling and trial and error confirms four of these, each with some variations. Even better, these trigger words work in multiple languages. We've included a few variations in English, Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai. And there are some additional notes and tips for using these trigger words in whatever language you choose: We've only included words or phrases in lowercase letters for simplicity.

But we've also included variations with and without diacritics (accents).

We've included the translation for the effect next to each language name.

All of the below should work when using some or all capital letters.

All of the below should work when adding punctuation before or after.

In Spanish, you can contain the word or phrase within ¡ ! marks (inverted and regular exclamation points) to add extra emphasis. For example, ¡feliz cumpleanos!

We tested emojis as stand-ins, but they never triggered anything.

Words and phrases with ||| after them have not been verified to work.

English is listed first for each effect; other languages are listed alphabetically.

Experiment with your language of choice to find alternatives.

1. Balloons The Balloons effect can be prompted by wishing someone a happy birthday. ENGLISH - balloons ------------------ happy birthday ████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ARBABIC - بالونات ----------------- عيد ميلاد سعيد CHINESE VARIATIONS - 气球 / 的氣球 / 生日快樂 ------------------------------------------ 生日快乐 生日快樂 CROATIAN - baloni ----------------- sretan rođendan CZECH - balónky --------------- vsechno nejlepsi k narozeninam všechno nejlepší k narozeninám DANISH - balloner ----------------- tillykke med fødselsdagen ESTONIAN - õhupallid -------------------- palju onne sunnipaevaks ||| palju õnne sünnipäevaks ||| FRENCH - ballons ---------------- joyeux anniversaire GERMAN - ballons für -------------------- alles gute zum geburtstag herzlichen gluckwunsch zum geburtstag herzlichen glückwunsch zum geburtstag GREEK - μπαλόνια --------------- xρόνια πολλά INDONESIAN - balon ------------------ selamat ulang tahun ITALIAN - palloncini -------------------- buon compleanno JAPANESE - には風船 ------------------ 誕生日おめでとう KOREAN - 풍선 ------------ 생일 축하합니다 POLISH - balony --------------- wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin PORTUGUESE - balões ------------------- feliz aniversario feliz aniversário SPANISH - globos ---------------- feliz cumpleanos feliz cumpleaños THAI - ลูกโป่ง / บอลลูนส --------------------- สุขสันต์วันเกิด

2. Confetti The Confetti effect appears when you congratulate someone. ENGLISH - confetti ------------------ congratulations congrats ████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ARBABIC - قصاصات ورقية ---------------------- تهانينا CHINESE VARIATIONS - 五彩纸屑 / 的五彩碎紙 / 七彩紙碎 ------------------------------------------------- 恭喜 祝賀 ||| CROATIAN - konfeti ------------------ cestitke ||| čestitke ||| CZECH - konfety --------------- gratulujeme DANISH - konfetti ----------------- tillykke ESTONIAN - konfetid ------------------- onnitlused ||| õnnitlused ||| FRENCH - confettis ------------------ felicitations félicitations GERMAN - konfetti für --------------------- herzlichen gluckwunsch herzlichen glückwunsch GREEK - κομφετί --------------- συγχαρητήρια INDONESIAN - confetti --------------------- selamat ITALIAN - coriandoli -------------------- congratulazioni JAPANESE - には紙ふぶき --------------------- おめでとうございます KOREAN - 축하 꽃종이 / 색종이 조각 ----------------------------- 축하합니다 POLISH - konfetti ----------------- gratulacje PORTUGUESE - confete -------------------- parabens parabéns SPANISH - confeti ----------------- felicidades enhorabuena felicitaciones THAI - กระดาษโปรย / ลูกปา ------------------------ ขอแสดงความยินดีด้วย

3. Fireworks The Fireworks effect can be triggered by wishing someone a happy new year. ENGLISH - fireworks ------------------- happy new year ████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ARBABIC - ألعاب نارية --------------------- سنة جديدة سعيدة ||| CHINESE VARIATIONS - 烟花 / 上烟火 / 的煙火 / 煙花 ----------------------------------------------- 新年快乐 新年快樂 CROATIAN - vatromet ------------------- sretna nova godina CZECH - ohňostroj ----------------- stastny novy rok šťastný nový rok DANISH - fyrværkeri ------------------- godt nytar godt nytår ESTONIAN - ilutulestiku ----------------------- head uut aastat ||| FRENCH - feux d’artifice ------------------------ bonne annee bonne année GERMAN - feuerwerk für ---------------------- frohes neues jahr GREEK - συγχαρητήρια --------------- καλή χρονιά ευτυχισμένο το νέο έτος INDONESIAN - kembang api ------------------------ selamat tahun baru ITALIAN - fuochi d'artificio ---------------------------- buon anno JAPANESE - には花火 ------------------ あけましておめでとう KOREAN - 폭죽 / 불꽃 ------------------ 새해 복 많이 받으세요 POLISH - sztuczne ognie ----------------------- szczesliwego nowego roku szczęśliwego nowego roku PORTUGUESE - ogo de artifício ----------------------------- feliz ano novo SPANISH - fuegos artificiales ----------------------------- feliz ano nuevo feliz año nuevo THAI - ดอกไม้ไฟ -------------- สวัสดีปีใหม่

4. Celebration Similarly, the Celebration effect appears when you wish someone a happy Chinese New Year. ENGLISH - celebration --------------------- happy chinese new year happy lunar new year ████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ARBABIC - احتفال ---------------- سنة صينية جديدة سعيدة CHINESE VARIATIONS - 庆典 ------------------------ 春节快乐 农历新年快乐 CROATIAN - proslava ------------------- sretna kineska nova godina sretna lunarna nova godina CZECH - oslava -------------- stastny cinsky novy rok šťastný čínský nový rok stastny lunarni novy rok šťastný lunární nový rok DANISH - fest ------------- godt kinesisk nytar godt kinesisk nytår ESTONIAN - pidu --------------- head hiina uut aastat ||| onnelik kuu uus aasta ||| õnnelik kuu uus aasta ||| FRENCH - la fête / célébration ------------------------------ joyeux nouvel an chinois GREEK - εορτασμός ------------------ ευτυχισμένο το κινέζικο νέο έτος ευτυχισμένο το σεληνιακό νέο έτος INDONESIAN - perayaan --------------------- selamat tahun baru cina ITALIAN - celebrazione ---------------------- buon capodanno cinese JAPANESE - お祝い ---------------- 旧正月おめでとう 旧正月、明けましておめでとうございます KOREAN - 축하 ------------ 새해 복 많이 받으세요 POLISH - uroczystość -------------------- szczesliwego chinskiego nowego roku szczęśliwego chińskiego nowego roku szczesliwego ksiezycowego nowego roku szczęśliwego księżycowego nowego roku PORTUGUESE - celebração ----------------------- feliz ano novo chines feliz ano novo chinês feliz ano novo lunar SPANISH - celebracion --------------------- feliz ano nuevo chino feliz año nuevo chino feliz ano nuevo lunar feliz año nuevo lunar THAI - งานเฉลิมฉลอง ------------------ สุขสันต์วันตรุษจีน

Manually Sending iMessage Effects No term to prompt the effect you're looking for? That's okay — it's easy enough to use bubble or full-screen effects manually. When manually triggering the effect, your recipient will even be able to replay the effect, an option that isn't available when a keyword is used. What's the difference between bubble effects and screen effects? Bubble effects affect the individual text bubble for that message. Screen effects, as the name suggests, affects the full screen when used. Note that unlike bubble effects, screen effects have additional sounds and haptic responses. It's a great touch, but one you want to be aware of if texting in a quiet room. Additionally, while at least some of the screen effects can be triggered with a keyword, bubble effects need to be sent manually. For both bubble and screen effects, you can manually launch them by long-pressing the send button (upward arrow). At the top of the "Send with effect" screen, you can toggle between bubble and screen. Here, you can send your message with the bubble effects (as of iOS 13: slam, loud, gentle, and invisible ink) or screen effects (the four above as well as echo, spotlight, love, lasers, and shooting star). Apple's iMessage effects are a great way to add a little fun to your message and trigger words make it super easy to use some of the most popular animations. Perhaps there will be more of these trigger words in a future iOS update, but for now, we'll be sending all of our iPhone-having friends a festive effect whenever there's something to celebrate. Don't Miss: Memoji Stickers, Improved Search & More New Apple Messages Features in iOS 13 for iPhone

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