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Camera Effects: Fun Real-Time Photo Effects | iOS 17 Guide

Open the Messages app and tap into any conversation. From here, you can press the camera icon to the left of the text bar to quickly snap a photo and instantly send it as part of the chat.

But did you know that the Messages camera has some really fun effects built in? Once the camera is open, tap the effects button in the bottom left to access the App Strip. You can add custom stickers here, but even the first four default options are pretty powerful.

The first option overlays an Animoji or Memoji character onto your real head, and tracks motion to map seamlessly onto your body. It’s a really striking effect!

Next, the filters option gives access to the classic camera filters along with some additional arty styles like Comic Book and Watercolor.

Third, the text option allows you to choose a font style from the list and type anything you like. When you’re done typing, tap in the background of the image somewhere to stop editing and you can then press and drag the text to move it around, or pinch to resize it.

Lastly, shapes provide a range of annotations like arrows and squiggles. Tap any of these to add them to your image and then you can press, pinch, and drag to move them around.

Augmented reality

If you’re adding a floating element like a sticker or a block of text, you can actually ‘pin’ it to your own head using augmented reality. This feature is only available on the latest devices.

Get your face in view until a yellow box appears to show the device is tracking your movements. Drag the graphic onto your face. Then, if you move it will move too, as if it were in the room with you! This is particularly fun when recording video clips.