In this article
Send certain emoji on their own and tapping them fills the screen: confetti, flames, balloons, a beating heart, with a matching buzz from the phone.
The detail that makes it more than an animation is that it is shared. If the other person has the chat open at the same moment, they get the same burst on their screen, at the same time, without you sending anything else.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Trigger a full-screen effect and know when the other person sees it.
- check_circle Find which emoji have one.
- check_circle Send a message with an effect attached.
- check_circle Turn all of it off.
The effect covers the whole chat rather than playing inside the bubble, and tapping again replays it.
celebration Presence, briefly
Most of what a messenger does is asynchronous: you send, they read later. This is one of the few places Telegram does the opposite. The effect is live only while you are both looking, and it leaves nothing behind except an ordinary emoji in the chat.
That is why it lands the way it does. Somebody tapping a firework at you at the same second is closer to being in a room together than a message is, and it works precisely because it is not recorded anywhere.
Not every emoji has one. The ones that do are a small set built around celebration, affection and a couple of jokes, and you discover them by sending one on its own and tapping it. A bubble that can be tapped is doing something.
Four things about the effect
One is when it works, one is where it does not belong, and two are control.
sensors A live moment
emoji_emotions Finding the ones that work
rule Read the room
settings Not everybody wants this
It works because it is live, unrecorded and rare. Used constantly it is none of those things.
settings Trying it
- Send a single emoji with no text A celebratory one is the best first attempt.
- Tap the emoji in the chat If it has an effect, the screen fills.
- Watch for their reply If they were there, they saw the same thing at the same time.
- Try holding the send button on a message For an effect attached to something you wrote.
- Turn effects off in the animation settings If you or your device would rather not.
This page is expression without words. The curriculum step is expression with them: bold and code and quotes, hiding a line behind a spoiler, and the formatting that changes how a message is read.
At a glance
- 1Full-screen effects
Some emoji play an effect when sent alone and tapped.
- 2Message effects
Hold Send to attach an effect to a message.
- 3Turn them off
Disable animations in power saving settings.
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