April Fools’ Texts to Send — and Confuse the People You Love

April 1 is either the best or worst day on the internet depending on your sense of humor. You may think joke announcements from super well-known brands are hilarious or you may think you’re losing your mind.

If you’d like to get in on the fun without having to do anything besides using your phone, here are some of the best texts to send on April Fools’ Day. All of the following suggestions acknowledge the person you’re texting probably knows who you are, how many people in your phone don’t have their name attached to their phone number? Also, none of these texts should involve law enforcement. We don’t want the cops to get called because you’re attempting to fool someone. That’s not funny.

The simplest way to let someone know you may or may not be responding to them is by sending a GIF of three blinking dots. The blinking dots, an ellipses, means you’re responding. Since you sent a GIF of blinking dots, the person will think you’re writing to them. We suggested doing this in 2021 and it holds up as a great way to let someone know you may or may not be thinking about them. Confusion should reign on April Fools’ Day.

Newsweek has one of the best family-friendly and least-annoying April Fools’ Day text-based prank suggestions. Pull up the script for the SpongeBob SquarePants episode “Squid Plus One” (here’s the link). Text whomever you want, “Hey. Whatcha doing?” However the person responds, follow up with the question SpongeBob asks in the script, which is, “How busy would you say you are on a scale of eight to nine?” Keep going. See how long this goes. We doubt anyone realizes you’re SpongeBob.

Similar to using the SpongeBob script, how about copy and pasting some lyrics? Reader’s Digest suggests using Harry Styles’s “Adore You” to start a message with your significant other. Start with, “You don’t have to say you love me,” and wait. Similar to the SpongeBob texts, just use the next line in the song whenever and however they respond: “You don’t have to say nothing.” It’s another text exchange that shouldn’t bother anyone or make people think something is horribly wrong.

The Mirror has one of the easiest ways of confusing someone on April 1. You’ve heard of late posting, right? When you post a photo or video to Instagram of a trip or experience or whatever that’s long past? It works as a text too; just send a photo of yourself in a foreign country. This one is possibly the least annoying of all pranks and may double as a chance for you to let someone know you’re ready and willing to go on that next trip. Heck, even The Washington Post thinks late posting is good for your mental health.