One mum has warned fellow parents of an iPhone feature that allows your little ones to conceal the texts they have sent. Luckily, there’s an easy solution to stop it from happening
One mum was left horrified after discovering her child had been sending ‘invisible texts’ on their smartphone.
The debate around whether kids should have a phone always gets heated. Some parents let their little ones embrace technology, with the agreement their gadgets will be randomly checked and have child-friendly settings installed. Others believe the devices are dangerous for kids and open them up to a world of vitriol and inappropriate content.
The result? They have to go outside and play and get off their iPad… Dun dun dun. Wherever you stand in the discussion, it’s probably worth learning about a popular feature on iPhones that can conceal text messages. Luckily, there’s an easy way to disable it.
Taking to Reddit, one anonymous parent posted a screenshot of her child’s phone with the caption “My child has found a way to conceal texts.” The images showed an iMessage exchange that had been sent using the ‘Invisible Ink’ message.
This is done by writing your message and then holding your finger down on the send button and selecting ‘Invisible Ink’. The receiver will then receive a notification where the contents of the message will be blurred out.
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However, you can reveal the message by simply tapping it. If the message is extremely long, you will have to tap or drag on different parts of the message for it to be unearthed.
Many parents pointed out this simple solution in the comments section. “You just tap it then you can read it,” one person wrote. Another agreed, commenting: “Just tap on the squiggles, it will show you the text.” While a third added: “You didn’t try touching it? Even if I didn’t know I’d have tapped the messages to try to figure it out and saw that letters appeared.”
According to an Apple Community thread, you can also disable this feature altogether. To do this, click onto Settings, then General, then Accessibility, then Reduce Motion. Simply toggle the Reduce Motion off.
Should kids have smartphones? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below
