For many of us, our iPhone is the hub of a digital life and contains important information like pictures, text messages, and much more. That makes it an easy target if you're looking to play a prank on someone.
We're highlighting seven hysterical (and harmless) pranks to play on friends who have an iPhone.
1. Silly Siri Nicknames
For many pranks, you need to have access to your friend's unlocked iPhone. But iPhone security is top-notch, especially now that most iPhone models have Touch ID or Face ID. If all you have is a few moments alone with a locked iPhone, there's still some hope for mischief thanks to Siri.
When conversing with Siri, the voice assistant will call you by name. That makes it more personal when doing a wide variety of tasks with just your voice, like creating shopping lists, composing a text message, or ordering a pizza. What you might not realize is that it's easy to change what name Siri refers to someone by. All you need to do is ask.
Just hold down the Home button, or Side button on the right side of the iPhone X and later, to activate Siri. Then you can say something like "Siri, call me Angus, Lord of Unicorns." Whatever moniker you choose, Siri will call the victim that until they catch on and figure out how to change it back to their real name.
2. Awkward Alarms
This is another Siri prank you can do with a locked iPhone, but it's a little meaner.
Activate Siri and say "Set an alarm for 3:30am." Siri will set an alarm to wake up your target way too early.
If you're feeling especially cruel, spend however long you have with their phone setting dozens of alarms, reminders, and calendar events for random days in the future. When their iPhone is still randomly going off six months later, you've done a proper job of pranking.
3. Dots and More Dots
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You can even have fun with friends from thousands of miles away using iMessage. Anytime iPhone users chat using Apple's service, three small dots inside of a chat bubble appear when you're typing a message to the recipient. This is officially called the typing awareness indicator, and shows the other party that you're currently responding to their message.
But you can turn that into an advantage when looking to play a prank. Just download this GIF. And in the middle of a conversation, send it to your friend just like a normal photo from your album. They'll be waiting patiently for your response---hopefully for some time.
4. Autocorrect Autofail
Autocorrect is a great way to help minimize typing mistakes. But in this prank, it's easy to exploit for some laughs. You need full access to your victim's iPhone; how you get it is up to you. You'll teach autocorrect to change common phrases to something more uncommon, and hysterical.
Head to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. Click the Plus and enter a word they commonly type for the Shortcut. Put the word you want it to change into for the Phrase.
With this prank, you can have as much fun as you like. Perhaps "you're" gets autocorrected to "your" or their partner's name gets changed to someone else's. Maybe when they type "I love you" their iPhone autocorrects it to "We need to talk."
The only limit is your imagination and scruples.
5. Parlez-Vous Français?
There's always room for this timeless prank on a list like this. Once again, you'll need full access to a friend's phone.
Go to Settings > General > Language and Region > iPhone Language and change it to something they don't speak. Exit the Settings and watch as they try to navigate their iPhone in a foreign language.
If you're feeling benevolent, set their phone to something like French or Spanish. It might take your friend a while, but they'll probably be able to figure out how to change the language back to English.
For something evil, change the language to something that has no connection to English like Chinese, Japanese, or even Hebrew. Everything will become completely unreadable.
6. Home Screen of Death
This prank won't fool your victim for long, but fixing it is really annoying. After snagging their iPhone, take a screenshot of the home screen.
There are two ways to do this, depending on which iPhone model they have. For older iPhones with a home button, press the home and the lock screen button at the same time. For newer models with Face ID, you'll need to press the side button and volume up button simultaneously.
Next, move all the apps off the main screen to another page. To finish the prank, set the screenshot you just took to their wallpaper by going to Settings > Wallpaper. Whenever they open their iPhone, they'll select an app and nothing will happen.
7. Stuck in the App Store, or Anywhere Else
Guided Access is one of the many accessibility features in iOS and will lock an iPhone into one app. That makes it perfect when handing your iPhone over to a young child without worrying. It also means you can lock your victim into the App Store, or anywhere else in their iPhone.
With an unlocked device, head to Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access and turn it on. Go into Passcode Settings and set a password (but seriously, remember this password or choose something obvious like 1234). In that same menu, also make sure that the option to turn off Guided Access with Touch ID or Face ID is switched off.
Next, head to wherever you select to trap your friend. Press the home button or side button (depending on iPhone model) three times to start Guided Access. Now they'll need the password only you know to turn the feature off.
Fun iPhone Pranks
Thanks to technology, it's fun and easy to play a prank on friends. As you can see, after just a few minutes with your victim's iPhone, they'll be going mad trying to undo all of the different pranks you can play.
If your friend is using an Android, here are the best Android pranks to play on others.
Just make sure to be careful when you play a prank so you won't ruin a friendship with a trick that went too far. For more inspiration, take a look at this all-knowing virtual fortune teller or some fun fake viruses to freak out your friends.