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How Do I Turn Off Messages Effects On My iPhone? Here’s The Fix!

    David Payette
  • 8 years ago
    • Categories: Messages

Enough is enough — they were cute at first, but the effects in your iPhone’s Messages app are getting on your nerves and it’s time to turn them off. In this article, I’ll explain how to turn off effects in the Messages app on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod so you can get back to texting as usual.

Before you go looking for “Disable iMessage Effects” in Settings, let me save you the trouble — it isn’t there. Apple will probably include that feature in a future update after enough people complain, but for now, the only way to turn off effects in the Messages app is by turning on a setting in Accessibility.

How Do I Turn Off Messages Effects On My iPhone, iPad, or iPod?

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Tap on Accessibility.
  3. Tap on Motion.
  4. Tap on Reduce Motion.
  5. Tap the switch on the right side of Reduce Motion to turn it on and disable iMessage effects in the Messages app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod.

iPhone Messages Effects: Turned Off.

Turning on Reduce Motion isn’t a perfect solution because it doesn’t just turn off effects in the Messages app on your iPhone — it disables the less-annoying animations too. The silver lining to turning on Reduce Motion is that it’s a battery life saver, and a part of my series about how to save iPhone battery life.

If you’re not happy about not being able to turn off iMessage effects in Settings -> Messages on your iPhone, you can share your thoughts with Apple on their product feedback website.

Thanks for reading, and remember to Payette Forward,
David P.

View Comments (88)

  • II did as you asked the special effects are still there how do I get a message back to be normal message

  • Oh My Gosh! Thank you so much David. Why Apple keeps creating these annoying features WITHOUT notification and activating them WITHOUT approval is beyond me. Thanks for helping to restore normalcy to messaging again!

  • Hey David,
    You live in Boise?
    THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for showing me how to turn of effects on texts!!! They were driving me crazy, and making me wish for my good old LG Cosmos!!

  • I have an iPhone 8 with version 13.6. There's no "message effects" in the iMessage app. So what other solution do you suggest?

  • I did as suggested above to turn off the special effects of texts, but it did not work. Is there anything else I can do. THESE EFFECTS ARE MOST ANNOYING and come up when least expected or wanted.

  • I have an old 5C I want to give to my grandson just to use to play games on WiFi . How do I turn off messages, texting, etc. so he is not contacting people to bother them? Lol

  • FINALLY A FIX!!!
    My 76-year-old father had the exact same issue for months. Apparently he was just fat fingering it and pressing the blue up arrow too long every single time. If you just Tap it quickly, it sends perfectly. He didnt realize that.
    (Using Settings Accessibility Didnt help at all.)

  • I set reduce motion to green but the bubbles still came up. I don't know how to exit the bubble screen, pressing the x doesn't take me back to my text

  • Hate it. Besides being juvenile, I have had texts just sit there (that I thought were sent). The phone was waiting for me to choose an effect.

  • Thank you for this FIX to stop my iPhone "effects". I use my phone for business purposes and don't want or need any effects. Again,Thank You.

  • I have done this (changed the settings per your instructions) and I still often get directed to "gentle effects" and have to virtually stab my phone multiple times to get out of this, and just send the message. Any advice on why this keeps happening? It is extremely irritating.

  • Have a iPhone 5s and upgraded to IOS 11.2.6 and none of the ways to disable message effects that I've found works. Even if iMessage is turned off and using only SMS the message effects screen displays if you touch the send button too long. Tried turning on Reduce Motion and still have effects. Tried turning on Reduce Motion and turn off Auto Play Message Effect and still have effects. Another option found is turn off the 3D button but on the 5S there isn't an option for 3D buttons. Apple evidently insists we have effects whether or not we want them. Seems that there isn't any decent way to downlevel the IOS level. This phone was on IOS 7 and right now wish it were back there. Yes I know that if you just tap the send button lightly and quickly the effects screen isn't displayed but when you're not young this is sometimes hard to do. Anyone found a way in 11.2.6 to disable the message effects? Or is there a setting the might increase the time that one would need to hold the Send button before the effects screen is shown? I tried a few things but didn't help. I've sent feedback to Apple about this but don't expect they really care that some of us don't want the effects. Seems my options now are to find a iPhone with IOS earlier than 10 or go to an Android. I'm leaning toward Android.

  • send with effect I HATE IT APPLE should remove it, not too many people like it, I ask over 500 members in my group none likes this option

  • Looks like we all agree ... the bubbles bulls*** in iMessage is driving us crazy!! Why can't the whizz bang programmers at Apple make this an OPTIONAL rather then MANDATORY feature? They would be better off fixing iTunes and its bug in burn to disc which sorts and burns the to-be-copied files alphabetically reader then by track number.

  • Imessage effects are one of the worst aspects of the recent upgrade. . Incredible that there is no way to disable this unwanted feature.

  • If I accidentally tap too hard and get the message effects screen, I can't get rid of it. I did follow the directions above and hope it helps, but now under "Reduce Motion" there's another button that says, "Auto-play Message Effects". Should that be off or on?

  • I followed the instructions and still persist. The most annoying add on to a text there is : Stupid stuff!!

  • I followed these directions and it seemed to have worked, but tonight, I just tried to send a text to a friend and rather than send it, it diverted to the the list of options (which includes send with Loud, with Gentle Effects and Invisable Ink, etc). I was so disappointed. I thought it was gone. I just want to be able to send a text. I don't even know why I get this message sometimes and not other times. Does this "fix" only work on iMessages or is it supposed to work on all texts?

  • My phone updated overnight and this crap was on it. Thanks for the info. I hate the effects

  • done this a few times already and it still happens sometimes. very annoying and embarrasing on a business phone

  • Just a light tap to send your messages will FIX this problem. If you hit send hard it defaults to the balloons. Just quickly hit your send arrow fast. It will work!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • I sure hope this works (although I noticed now quitting active apps is more difficult) because it sent balloons on a message of condolenses for a tragedy before I could stop it!!!! (No matter how hard I tried to back out.)

  • Just TAP ever so lightly to send your messages without effects. If you hold your arrow down harder or longer, it will go into the Effects! Give it a try!

  • it has to do with how long you hold your finger on the send arrow. hold too long and you get the "send with effect" screen. something like the mouse double click speed

  • Thank you! I would write the text then the infernal machine would not send the text. Should I choose balloons or slam? Community college didn't offer any short courses in texting effects skills. Thank you for outsmarting those pencil neck geeks in Cupertino. You have greatly served humanity.

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David Payette: I'm a former Apple employee and the founder of Payette Forward, and I'm here to help you with your iPhone.