Apple’s latest ‘Balloons’ ad shows off iOS 10’s new iMessage screen effects

Apple today published a new television ad to their YouTube channel. The ad, simply entitled Balloons, pictures a single balloon floating alone place-to-place. After conquering multiple types of terrain, the red balloon reaches the city were it is joined up with what appears to be thousands of other balloons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR6JtMIdMuU

Later the camera pans up to an iPhone 7 owner who receives a Happy Birthday message. From there I’m guessing you can figure out the rest? The sender of the message uses iOS 10’s new screen effects feature and fills the screen with balloons. Apple finishes off the ad with the tagline “Expressive messages on iPhone 7. Practically magic.”

While Apple did add iPhone 7 into the end of the ad, you can still use the message effect features on any device running iOS 10. To check out a list of devices compatible with iOS 10, feel free to check them out here. To send an iMessage with an effect you can hold/3D Touch the send arrow. This will then present you with other screen effect options ranging from balloons to confetti to lasers and fireworks. Particular keywords like “Congratulations!” or “Happy Birthday!” will also play a screen effect automatically. Although, for any of this to happen both users need to have iMessage enabled and running iOS 10.