How to make an Android text message screenshot that looks real

What you need

A contact name, a profile photo if you want one, and a short script. Fakeconvo's Android SMS generator draws the thread in the Android Messages style, is free, needs no account and puts no watermark on the PNG. Your photos and text stay in your browser.

Five steps to a realistic Android text thread

1. Set up the thread. Under People, type the other person's name; it shows in the header next to a round avatar with their initial in a colour picked from the name, or click the round button before the name to add a profile photo. For a group, turn on "Group chat", type the "Group name" and use "+ Add person". Leave the name empty and Android shows "4 People" instead (you count too).
2. Write the messages. Under Messages, use "+ From …" for the others and "+ From me" for yours. Yours are light blue on the right, theirs light grey on the left, and messages in a row are grouped into one rounded stack. Their avatar sits next to the last bubble of each run, and in a group their name sits above the first one.
3. Set the delivery label. Android shows the time under the last bubble of each run, and only your newest message gets a receipt after it, like "10:42 · Delivered". Pick "Sent", "Delivered" or "Read" in that message's "Status". Turn off "Read receipts" and "Read" falls back to "Delivered", as it does when the other phone doesn't share read receipts. A pause of an hour or more between messages gets its own "Today · 18:05" line, and "Show timestamps" hides the times and those lines.
4. Add replies, reactions and photos. Pick an older message in "Reply to" and Android quotes it at the top of the bubble with the sender's name, or "You" (a quoted photo shows a small thumbnail). Under "Reactions", tap an emoji to pin it to the bubble. "+ Photo" sends an image, with an optional "Caption" bubble under it, and "+ Date / notice" adds a centred line of small text.
5. Set the look and export. Turn on "Dark mode" for the dark theme, set the "Status bar time" and battery, and download the PNG at 2x or 3x, as the phone screen or the whole thread.

Details that make an Android text look staged

Text messages are short and plain: one thought per bubble, a typo now and then, an emoji reaction instead of a full answer. A long, perfectly punctuated paragraph reads like an email.

Watch the times and the receipt. Keep a live conversation a minute or two apart and set the status bar clock a little after the last message. "Read" under your last message with no answer after it says the other person left you on read, so make sure that's the story you mean. And don't mix looks: green and blue iPhone bubbles, "iMessage" or a "Delivered" under every message all belong to another phone.

Use it the right way

Android text screenshots are for videos, memes, stories, app mock-ups and lessons, such as showing a class what a fake "your parcel is on hold, pay the fee here" text looks like. Do not put words in the mouths of real people, do not make a thread that looks like proof of something that never happened, and do not use one to scam, bully or embarrass anyone. Our acceptable use page has the details.