Hilarious Text Pranks to Drive Your Friends Crazy

The only reason to have friends is to prank them mercilessly every single day. And thanks to modern technology, there are so many ways to mess with your loved ones. So many, in fact, that you’re totally missing out if you’re not pranking everyone in your contacts list (and even strangers) with any free time that you have.

The text pranks on this list range from very easy to the somewhat difficult, but not because you have to know how to code or do any research, you just need to be dedicated to the prank. If you aren’t sure how to prank people with texts, this list is basically a step by step instruction manual for how to lose friends and make enemies. And if you’re an avid prankster in need of some new ideas, these hilarious text pranks will drive your friends crazy.

One of the most appealing things about text message pranks is the level of absurdity that you can reach before anyone realizes that you’re messing with them. The best funny texting pranks are the ones that start out harmless and then go full on crazy within a few keystrokes. Of course, there are a few drawbacks to pranking your friends and family. You could be written out of a will, or worse, pranked back. Try to keep that fact in mind while you peruse this list of funny text pranks to play on your friends.

Make Your Parents Say Yes

A great way to mess with your parents is to change the shortcuts in their phone to phrases that will help you throw that rager you’ve been dying to have.

Send Cat Facts

” Cat Facts” is a modern classic text prank where you pretend to be a service offering facts about cats. The key is to never relent to the person you’re contacting. To everyone but the person being messaged this is the funniest thing in the world.

Change Your Friend’s Contacts to Star Wars Characters

If you have any Star Wars fans in your life (which you definitely do) change all of their contacts to the names of Star Wars characters. You get extra points if you make the character names to correspond to the special people in your life.

Crash Your Friend’s iPhone

If you want to turn all of your friends with an iPhone into one angry mob, just send them that weird string ofcode that shuts down their phone. Don’t worry though, it doesn’t seem to do any long term harm to the device.

Be the Moth

This prank works with pretty much any animal/bug/whatever that your children or friends are afraid of, just be ready for them to never trust you again.

Eff Up They’re/There/Their

It’s a text shortcut prank that’s sure to drive all the grammar nazis you know up a wall. Just change your friend’s phone settings so it autocorrects it’s, its, their, there, they’re, your, and you’re to their grammatically inaccurate counterparts.

Force a Shortcut

There are a lot of fun shortcut pranks to pull on your friends, one of the easiest ones is to change your friend’s settings to correct a normal word to something crazy and maybe even slightly offensive.

Try the Reversal

If you ever get a text from your significant other, sibling, or friend bragging about some good ol’ fashioned illicit action, just pretend to be your mother. It’s foolproof and hilarious.

Get a Little Help from Adele

A great way to get back at your exes is to start sending them lyrics to Adele’s lovelorn track, “Hello.” Just be prepared for any admissions of love that follow.

Sell 2 Grams for $40

In 2013, comedian Nathan Fielder implored his Twitter followers to “accidentally” text their parents pretending to sell drugs. The reactions were amazing. Try it on your mom and may the odds ever be in your favor!

Fake Your Death

This prank is simple, but it’s guaranteed to make sure that you lose your friends forever. Use it wisely.

Make Them a Co-conspirator

This is always a fun text to send to a random number, but be warned: not everyone is going to be as cool with getting a random text message as the person in the example.

Use This Party Trick

If you’re house sitting and want to freak out your friends, it’s always fun to pretend like you burned the whole place down. If you want to take it up a notch, try to include some pictures.

Become a Weapons Salesman

If you find someone who’s posted their number in public, do whatever you can to have fun with them. Just make sure you’re prepared to deal with the definite fallout that comes along with this kind of prank.

Fake a Makeout

A classic text prank that’s sure to make everyone feel terrible.

Change Their Contact Numbers

This prank can be as simple as swapping the number for your friend’s mom in for their girlfriend, or going nuts and swapping ALL of their contacts around.

Be warned: if you go that far, you’ll probably be in the market for a new friend.

Let Them Know He’s Busy

If your girlfriend (or boyfriend) is bothering you with an unending text assault, just respond with “he’s busy” and get ready to never speak to your significant other ever again.

Rent a Bulldozer

This prank is pretty specific, but if you see someone offering to rent a bulldozer on Craigslist, feel free to re-enact the plot Encino Man.

Get Your Band Booked

Why do people post their phone numbers in public? It just opens them up to all kinds of harassment. This prank involves making up a fake band and trying to get yourself booked at a bluegrass night.

As overly specific as that sounds, if you’re dedicated you can really have some fun.

Fix Your iPhone

Since the introduction of the smart phone, entrepreneurs have been going out of their way to make money off the clumsy folks who can’t help but crack their screens.

A simple way to prank them is to send a text message asking them to fix a crack in your phone, and then show them the crack.