Siri Will Tell You the Secrets of “invisible Ink”
Putting secrets into texts is a risky business. Email is almost certainly banned, as is traditional SMS. Encrypted text messages like iMessage are better , as only your device and the recipient’s device can read the messages, but you never know who’s watching on the other end. (Of course, your friend might be alone, but he might also show off pictures of his dog when your private messages arrive.)
You should already be using iPhone’s invisible ink
You might already be in the habit, but the best way to protect your iMessages when sending them to a friend is to use the invisible ink effect . If someone accidentally looks over your friend’s shoulder while they’re having a conversation, they’ll see a pixelated pile of pixels, not your confessions and sins. If they see the notification, even better, as it appears as “Messages sent using invisible ink.”
Invisible ink won’t save you if someone gains access to the recipient’s phone and decides to swipe the pixels to read your outrageous thoughts, but it does at least provide some extra protection when sending something you don’t want other people to read. . It’s perfect when you’re sharing secrets with a friend, discussing show spoilers, or talking about a surprise you don’t want to spoil for viewers.
The only exception here is if you are trying to use the effect with an SMS (ie green text). These effects are iMessage-only, which means your iPhone will simply add some extra text, telling the recipient what effect was applied to the message. I buried the body (sent in invisible ink) , unfortunately that won’t help much.
Siri doesn’t work with invisible ink
However, when it comes to iMessages, there is one fatal flaw: Siri. You would think that the digital assistant could understand the prompt, but no: if you ask Siri to read your messages to you and one of them contains invisible ink, it will read the entire message aloud. To add insult to injury, she would add “sent with invisible ink.” (Yes, I know what it was. That was the point, Siri.)
This lack of awareness extends to CarPlay: imagine a car full of passengers hearing text they really shouldn’t have heard. You may have asked Siri to read your messages aloud to the group, but if you knew this message was sent privately, you would probably think twice.
When you offer a feature like Invisible Ink, it makes sense to do your best to keep those messages from being broadcast so easily. When Siri reads an Invisible Ink message aloud, it should start with this and ask if you want to continue. (“This message was sent using Invisible Ink. Would you like me to read it?” would be a great start.) However, Apple may never make this change, so be careful what you write to people and be careful when you ask Siri send a message. read these texts for you.