It’s an act of text-pionage.
A concerned parent has issued a warning after she discovered her child sending “concealed” texts to their friends, as detailed in a viral Reddit post.
“My child has found a way to conceal texts,” the unnamed guardian lamented while describing her child’s incognito correspondence on the subreddit Apple/help.
They also included a since-deleted screenshot showing the phantom message obscured by dancing pixels like TV static.
As many Redditors pointed, the youngster was using Apple’s “invisible ink” tool, which allows senders to hide their texts from prying eyes.
“Your child didn’t find anything,” snarked one. “You as a parent are unaware of the features Apple had built into iMessage.”
To encrypt their message, users simply click on iMessage and type the desired text into the chat box (this doesn’t work on SMS so make sure you’re texting someone who also has iMessage).
Instead of tapping “send,” press and hold the send button to pull up a hidden menu.
The user then clicks the “invisible ink” option and hits send, whereupon the message will arrive in the recipient’s inbox as the aforementioned squiggly pixels.
Tapping this message will make it appear like a kiddie spy thriller.
This can be an effective tool for concealing correspondence from over-the-shoulder phone peepers or perhaps discussing movies in a group sans revealing spoilers to the people who haven’t seen them.
And, as the aforementioned original poster pointed out, it’s also a great way to conceal texts from parents.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be Alan Turing to break the code. Just like the intended recipients, mom and dad simply have to press the message to decipher it.
“Just run your finger over the sparkles,” advised one Redditor, while another wrote, “Just tap on the squiggles, it will show you the text.”
There’s even a way to disable the tool altogether. The parent simply clicks “Settings,” then “Accessibility” and “Reduce Motion.”
Clicking this will deactivate the iMessage effects, effectively preventing one’s teen from committing text-pionage under their roof.