New Text Animation Effects in iOS 18 iMessage

Apple's iOS 18 update brings expressive new typography options to iMessage, allowing users to apply dynamic animations to individual letters, words, phrases, or entire sentences. Alongside standard formatting options like bold and italics, the Messages app introduces eight distinct animated text effects designed to visually emphasize your tone and make conversations more interactive.

The 8 New Animated Text Effects

iOS 18 includes eight built-in text animations that can be applied to any typed text or emoji:

  • Big: Temporarily inflates the selected text to a much larger scale, making it stand out prominently in the conversation thread.
  • Small: Shrinks the selected text down to a miniature size, ideal for conveying whispers, side notes, or understated reactions.
  • Shake: Causes the text to rapidly oscillate from side to side, emphasizing frustration, excitement, or disbelief.
  • Nod: Creates a rhythmic up-and-down motion that mimics head nodding, perfect for expressing agreement or affirmation.
  • Explode: Causes the text to dramatically burst outward into small fragments before snapping back together.
  • Ripple: Sends a smooth, fluid wave motion across the letters from left to right.
  • Bloom: Causes the selected text to expand outward with an energetic, glowing floral-like pulse.
  • Jitter: Makes the text vibrate with a rapid, erratic twitching animation to simulate nervous energy, urgency, or intensity.

Additional Text Formatting Options

Alongside the animated effects, iOS 18 incorporates traditional rich text styling directly into the Text Effects menu. Users can now apply:

  • Bold
  • Italic
  • Underline
  • Strikethrough

These static formatting options can be used independently or paired with system-level Bubble Effects and Full-Screen Effects.

How to Apply Text Effects in iOS 18

Applying these new animations to messages is straightforward:

  1. Open a conversation in the Messages app.
  2. Type your message into the text field.
  3. Highlight the specific word, phrase, or emoji you want to animate. If no text is selected, the effect will apply to the entire message.
  4. Tap the Text Effects button (represented by an "A" icon with horizontal motion lines) located on the predictive bar, or tap the + button next to the input field and select More > Text Effects.
  5. Swipe horizontally across the menu to preview the effects.
  6. Tap the desired effect to apply it, then tap the blue Send arrow.

The Messages app will also automatically suggest relevant text effects based on the words you type, such as automatically offering the "Shake" or "Explode" effect when typing words like "Congratulations" or "Bummer."