Nearly every aspect of our lives has been affected by the digital age. But when it comes to pranks, most of us are still pulling the same old pranks. But you don't have to anymore.

There is a range of websites which open a whole new can of practical jokes. Here are the best web apps to pull tech pranks on your friends.

Disclaimer: The effectiveness of these web apps will depend on how adept are you at keeping a straight poker face.

1. Fake an Update

fake an update with updatefaker

Everyone hates staring helplessly at a software update screen, especially in the middle of a day. Update Faker lets you hatch a prank out of that exact situation. All you need to do is wait for that window when your friend leaves their computer unattended.

Update Faker can replicate update animations of four operating systems including Windows 10, macOS, Windows XP, and Windows 98. When you hit play, Update Faker will transform the browser tab into an update screen. It even shows a progress bar and in case the person at the receiving end presses Enter, Update Faker will load the blue screen of death.

Since Update Faker automatically disables keyboard or mouse input, you can switch on the browser's full-screen mode to remove clues that it's a prank. The only way to exit the screen is by pressing the full-screen shortcut or hovering the cursor over the taskbar at the bottom.

If you want further options or need update screens for other operating systems like Windows 7, you can also try FakeUpdate.net.

Visit: Update Faker

2. FaceTime With Celebrities

FlexTime is possibly the most effortless method to freak your friends out. On FlexTime, you can simulate FaceTime calls of you video-chatting with a celebrity.

The caller window of the layout is the real-time stream of you from the phone's front-facing camera. But the rest of the space is filled with the personality's story from their social media accounts. FlexTime has a wide collection of celebrity clips in its catalog such as Robert Downey Jr, Cardi B, and Kim Kardashian. Choose the one your friend fantasizes meeting the most and you're good to go.

You can share these by either taking a screenshot or screen-recording the web app since FlexTime has also included the stories' audio. For the prank, of course, you will have to come up with a plot on how you managed to call a celebrity but for everything else, FlexTime has you covered.

FlexTime exists as an app called Monkey if you'd like more options and social features.

Visit: Flextime by Monkey [Broken URL Removed]

Download: Monkey for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

3. Generate a Fake Airline Ticket

create a fake airline ticket with ticket-o-matic

For your next trick, have you considered surprising your closed ones and friends with first-class airline tickets to an exotic location?

On a web app called Ticket-O-Matic, you can easily give that idea a shot. Ticket-O-Matic allows you to generate fake boarding passes. You can feed in your personal details like the origin city and name, and the app will instantly produce the custom ticket for free. You can download the result in JPG and PNG formats.

Did this activity end up inspiring you to just surprise your loved ones with real tickets? Here are a handful of traveler secrets to score cheap airline fares.

Visit: Ticket-O-Matic

4. Fool Your Friends Into Thinking You're a Hacker

pretend to be a geek with geektyper

You don't have to hijack someone's computer to prank them. You can use your own too. A website by the name of Geektyper can fool your friends into thinking you're a hacker.

Similar to Update Faker, you can go full-screen with one of the several geeky screens Geektyper offers. The website has a number of options such as the SHIELD dashboard from the Marvel movies, and the desktop setup from the Mr.Robot TV show.

Interestingly, these aren't simply static pages either. So you can hastily type anything on your keyboard to pretend like you're actually busy and Geektyper will enter a random piece of code on the screen. In addition, you can even click the folder icons to reveal more windows.

Visit: Geektyper

5. Create Fake Chats

create a fake chat screen with ifaketextmessage

In today's generation, chat screenshots are powerful enough to destroy relationships and win arguments. But what if you could extend their influence to your pranks?

To do that, you will need to create fake chats. Fortunately, there are a bunch of websites where you can quickly forge them. Web apps like iFakeTextMessage and FakeChatApp can produce personalized mockups of iMessage, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.

iFakeTextMessage is solely for iMessage. Apart from the messages, it lets you edit the battery level at the top, connection name, time, and much more. On top of that, you have the choice to change the text bubble's color. So if your friend is an iPhone user, you can keep it blue and otherwise, green for depicting SMS.

FakeChatApp is a bit advanced and works for two platforms---Facebook Messenger andWhatsApp. Here, you'll find a bunch of minute features which will help you build an elaborate prank. For starters, you can add images or GIFs and choose between a mobile and tablet layout. Plus, the profile picture can be altered and if you're on Facebook Messenger, you can insert the iconic blue thumbs up.

Visit: iFakeTextMessage

Visit: FakeChatApp

6. Send Your Friend a Website That Never Loads

You probably exchange memes and video links with your friends constantly. But next time, how about sending them a site that never loads?

When the person opens a website called Photricity in their browser, all they'll see are a couple of ads like any regular site and a progress bar with the title "Loading the site". When the bar fills up, the app will simply replace it with a circular animation. Irrespective of how quick their connection is, Photricity will show the loading sign till eternity until they get fed up and close the tab.

Visit: Photricity

7. Spam Your Friend's Phone With Prank Texts

Spam your friend with prank messages with blowupthephone

You often buy electronics or grocery on the internet. But for as little as a dollar, you can flood your friend's phone with tens of anonymous spam texts online. BlowUpThePhone is a service where you can schedule a stream of random SMS messages for pranking someone.

The website asks for your friend's cell number and a small fee depending on the number of texts you'd like to send. It charges 6¢ per SMS and a 50¢ processing fee. To terminate the deluge, the person will have to text back STOP or opt-out by heading over to BlowUpThePhone.

At the time of writing, BlowUpThePhone was only available in the United States.

Visit: BlowUpThePhone

Beat Boredom With Geeky Fun

You no longer have to turn to the same old tricks to prank someone. With these websites, you can prank your friends even if they are miles away from you.

But pranks eventually do lose their fun element. Here are a whole bunch of hilarious websites to beat boredom online when that happens for you as well.