How to make a fake text message video

1. Write the conversation before you think about visuals

A chat story is dialogue only — no narrator, no music needed. Write it as two people texting, and keep every message short enough to read at a glance on a phone. The most common mistake is writing paragraphs: on a 9:16 screen, a message longer than two lines forces the viewer to pause, and a paused viewer is a lost viewer.

It helps to think of it as a scene rather than a chat. Two people want different things, one of them is holding something back, and the messages are how that pressure escapes. If you can say in one sentence what each character wants, the lines write themselves. If you cannot, no amount of pacing will save it.

• One idea per message; split anything longer.
• Let the other person answer in one to four words when the tension is high.
• Read it out loud once — if you stumble, the viewer will too.
• Twelve to twenty-five messages is the working range. Below twelve the turn is unearned; above thirty the video outlives the feed.

2. Put the hook in the first two seconds

Feeds judge a video before the second message appears. Open on the line that raises a question — an accusation, a confession, a number that does not add up — and let the reply arrive after a beat. Backstory can come later, or not at all; the viewer will fill it in.

The test is simple: cover everything except the first message and ask whether you would keep watching. A greeting fails that test every time. So does a line that only makes sense once you know the setup.

• Weak: "hey", "you up?", "we need to talk".
• Strong: "why is your name on the lease", "she sent me the photo", "it says the payment went through twice".
• Strongest: something specific enough to sound stolen from a real life — a name, a place, an amount.

3. Time the pauses, not just the text

Pacing is the whole craft. A message that lands instantly reads as calm; three seconds of a typing indicator before a short answer reads as hesitation. Vary it: a story where every message arrives on the same beat feels mechanical, and viewers feel that before they can name it.

The typing indicator is the strongest tool in the format and the most overused. It means "this person is choosing their words". If it appears before every message it means nothing. Use it three or four times in a whole story, on the lines where the choice actually costs someone something.

• Ordinary reply: 0.6–1.2s after the previous message.
• Emotional beat: 2–4s, ideally with a typing indicator.
• The unanswered message: 4–6s of nothing, then the subject changes. Silence reads louder than any line you could write there.
• Total length: 20–40s holds best; past 60s completion drops sharply.

4. Pick a style that matches the mood

The look sets the tone before a word is read. A Telegram-style dark theme suits confessions and night-time drama; a WhatsApp-style light chat with green bubbles reads as everyday and comedic; an iMessage-style black screen with blue bubbles feels intimate and modern. Whatever you pick, keep it consistent inside a series so viewers recognise your videos.

The theme matters as much as the look. Light backgrounds read as daytime and ordinary; dark ones read as late, private and serious. A comedy on a black screen fights itself.

5. Export vertical and post natively

Export 1080×1920 MP4 at 30 fps and upload the file directly — re-recording your own screen costs a generation of quality and adds a system UI that does not belong to your story. Add the trending sound in the app you post to, where the algorithm can see it.

One file covers all three feeds. There is no reason to make a separate version for TikTok, Shorts and Reels: the frame is the same and the differences are in what sits on top of it.

Sizes and quirks: TikTok, Shorts and Reels

The frame is identical everywhere. What changes is how much of it the interface covers and how long the video keeps earning views after you post.

• TikTok — the caption, the handle and the buttons cover the bottom third. Keep the last message clear of it, or the punchline lands behind a "Follow" button.
• YouTube Shorts — the most forgiving on length and the only one that keeps sending viewers weeks later. A story with a real ending belongs here even if it runs past a minute.
• Instagram Reels — the busiest top strip. Do not start the story at the very top of the frame.
• All three: post the file, do not re-record it, and add the sound inside the app so the track stays licensed.

Is it allowed to post a conversation that never happened?

Yes. Fiction is a normal thing to publish, and this format is read as fiction the same way a short film is — nobody believes the actors are really in trouble. What causes problems is not the invented conversation but passing it off as a real one, about a real person, or building a screen that imitates something official.

Four habits keep you clearly on the right side, and none of them cost you a single view.

• Invent the names. Never use the name, photo or handle of someone who could be recognised.
• Say it is a story where the platform gives you the room: a word in the caption, a label, or the first frame.
• Stay away from anything that could read as a real accusation, a real emergency, or real medical or legal advice.
• Never build a chat that imitates a bank, a payment confirmation or an official notice. That is the one use of this format that is genuinely harmful, and it is not what it is for.

Recording a real phone versus writing it

Filming the screen of an actual phone sounds cheaper and is not. You need a second device with clean notifications, someone to answer on cue, and a take where nobody makes a typo. The result comes out at that phone’s screen size, carrying its battery level, its wallpaper and its notification bar, and changing a single line means shooting the whole thing again.

Writing it instead means the timing is a number you can edit. Fixing a weak line takes as long as retyping it, and the second version is not a worse copy of the first.

What loses the first three seconds

Most videos in this format are not abandoned because the story is bad. They are abandoned before the story starts.

• Opening on a greeting instead of the problem.
• Every message arriving at the same speed, which reads as a list rather than a conversation.
• Messages long enough to need a second line.
• The typing indicator before every single message, until it stops meaning anything.
• A story with no ending, posted as a cliffhanger before anyone has a reason to trust there is a part two.
• Text so small it cannot be read on a phone held at arm’s length.
• A look that fights the mood — a horror story in a bright green everyday chat.

A worked example, beat by beat

Here is a complete twelve-message story with the timing written next to it. It is deliberately ordinary: the point is the shape, not the plot.

• 00:00 — "your mum called the landline" (no pause before it; the video opens on this)
• 00:02 — "we don’t have a landline" (1s later, flat)
• 00:04 — typing, 3s, then "I know"
• 00:08 — "who answered it" (fast, 0.7s — the panic is in the speed)
• 00:10 — silence, 5s. Nothing is typed. This is the middle of the story.
• 00:15 — "where are you right now" — and the story ends there, unanswered.