Message effects no longer work on my iPhone

So I’m not sure if this is due to iOS 13.2 or not because I’ve only just realized that I’m not getting message effects, those bubble messages or the balloons, pew pew lasers people can send you and which you can send.

• I did update my iPhone today from iOS 12.4.2 to iOS 13.2
• I’ve already tried rebooting my phone.

Is there a way to fix this?

Solution 1:

There are settings that can enable or disable these. Even if you don't recall selecting this - checking that you're enabled would be a good first step.

My guess is at some point you enabled (intentionally or otherwise) the Reduce Motion option in your settings.

To check this:

1. Go to Settings > Accessibility

2. At the top, if Reduce Motion is enabled then the following effects won’t work at all:

   • Bubble effects
   • Full-screen effects

3. The other setting you can check on this screen is the Auto-Play Message Effects option. If this is on they play automatically, if it’s off you have to play them manually by tapping the circular arrow button below the message.

Further reading

The following pages on Apple's website may be of interest:

• Use message effects with iMessage on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
• Reduce screen motion on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch