That’s text copyright infringement.
A concerned parent has issued a warning after discovering her child was sending ‘hidden’ texts to friends. More detailed in a viral Reddit post.
“My child found a way to hide his texts,” lamented an anonymous parent on the subreddit Apple/help, describing their child’s secret communications.
It also contained a since-deleted screenshot showing a phantom message hidden by dancing pixels that looked like a still image on a TV.
As many Redditors pointed out, the young man was using Apple’s “invisible ink” tool, which allows senders to hide texts from prying eyes.
“Your child didn’t find anything,” one person sneered. “As a parent, you don’t know about the features Apple has built into iMessage.”
To encrypt a message, the user must[iMessage]Just click and type the desired text in the chat box (this doesn’t work with SMS, so make sure you’re texting someone who has iMessage).
Instead of tapping Send, you can hold down the Send button and a hidden menu will appear.
Then, when the user clicks on the “invisible ink” option and presses send, the message will arrive in the recipient’s inbox as the aforementioned squiggle pixel.
When you tap on this message, it appears like a children’s spy thriller.
This can be an effective tool for hiding communications from people peeking over your shoulder on the phone, or for discussing a movie with a group without giving away spoilers to people who haven’t seen it yet.
And, as the original poster above pointed out, it’s also a great way to hide text from parents.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be Alan Turing to crack the code. Just like the intended recipient, mom and dad can decipher the message with just a press of a button.
“Just run your finger over the squiggle,” one Redditor advised, while another wrote, “Just tap on the squiggle and the text will appear.”
There is also a way to disable the tool completely.parents simply Click Settings, then click Accessibility and Reduce Movement.
Clicking this will disable the iMessage effect, effectively preventing teenagers from cheating on texts under your roof.
