Add text formatting or animation in Messages on Mac
Format the text in your messages or add playful, animated effects to any text, bubble, or transcript.
Note: To send and receive messages with text formatting or text effects, you and your recipients must be using iMessage with macOS 15, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, visionOS 2, or later. Messages appear in plain text when sent to devices with earlier (or other) operating systems.
Format and animate words
Format the text in your messages with bold, italics, and underlining, or add playful, animated effects like explode or shake to any letter, word, sentence—even emoji—in texts you send using iMessage.
Go to the Messages app
on your Mac.In a new or existing conversation, enter a new message, then select the text you want to format or animate.
Do one of the following:
Choose Format near the top of your screen.
Control-click the selected text.
Select your preferred formatting (bold, italic, underline, or strikethrough) or animated effect (Big, Small, Shake, Nod, Explode, Ripple, Bloom, or Jitter).
To send your message with the format or animation, press Return on your keyboard.
Add full-screen and bubble effects
You can add special effects to your messages, like the following:
Full-screen animations like fireworks, balloons, or confetti that animate in the transcript
Bubble effects like a slam or echo
Interactive effects that change how one message appears, like invisible ink that your friends need to swipe over to read your text
Go to the Messages app
on your Mac.Select a conversation.
Enter your message in the field at the bottom of the window.
Click
to the left of the message field (near the bottom), click Message Effects, then click an effect.When you select an effect, you see a preview of it.
To send it, press Return on your keyboard or click
.
View an item with invisible ink or other special effects
Go to the Messages app
on your Mac.Select a conversation.
Hold the pointer over an item sent with invisible ink to “wipe” it away and view the item. The item is again blurred when you move your pointer.
Other message effects are displayed automatically. To view the effect again, click the Replay button below the message. To make sure you receive messages with these effects, choose Messages > Settings, click General, then select Auto-play message effects. See Stop or reduce onscreen motion.
If you send an item with message effects to someone whose device doesn’t support them, the recipient sees descriptive text, such as “sent with Slam Effect.”
View handwritten messages
On certain iPhone and iPad models, people can send you handwritten messages and Digital Touch elements (like a sketch or heartbeat).
Go to the Messages app
on your Mac.Select a conversation.
To view handwritten messages and Digital Touch elements, double-click the item in the conversation.
A Quick Look window opens.
To save the item as an image file, drag it to your desktop or a document.
To send a handwritten message, see Draw and handwrite messages in the iPhone User Guide.