Great iPhone and iPad Pranks to Pull on Friends

Use Siri to Set Reminders, Alarms, Events, Etc.

While setting a reminder or an alarm to go off at a strange time might not sound like the greatest prank to pull on someone, there's a good reason why it's first on the list: you can do it to almost any iPhone or iPad.

Siri is the voice recognition personal assistant for iOS and, by default, it's turned on even when the device is on the lock screen. So, your intended victim can have their iPhone protected by a passcode and you can still pull a prank on them.

Activate Siri as you normally do by holding down the Home Button and give her a command. One funny prank is to create a string of reminders, such as:

• "Remind me at 9PM to check my tire pressure."
• "Remind me at 9:10PM to really check my tire pressure."
• "Remind me at 9:15PM that tire pressure is the gateway to safe driving."

You can also use Siri to set an alarm at a way-too-early time or schedule a fake meeting. Just remember, this prank could be pulled on you too, so you might want to turn Siri off while on the lock screen.

The Screenshot Background

The screen shot prank involves taking a screenshot of the home screen and using it as the wallpaper for the lock screen. This can cause your unsuspecting victim to think the iPad or iPhone is ready to use, but all the taps in the world won't open an app until they slide to unlock. 

The Screenshot Home Screen

This one is similar to the screenshot background.  Start by taking a screenshot of the first page of apps on the home screen. Next, move every app from the first screen to any other page of apps. Then, add the screenshot as the home screen background.  Last, delete the screen shot from the Photos app to keep your target from figuring out your prank.  

The result is a home screen full of apps that won't launch because they are actually part of the wallpaper. The victim can still launch docked apps and can still move to a different page to launch an app, but even moving to a different page gives the iPhone or iPad a broken effect when the original apps seem to stay in place.

The Blue Screen of Death

This one is funnier if you're targeting an IT professional or anyone that knows a bit about computers. The famed "Blue Screen of Death" is the error screen Windows gives when the operating system crashes. Having the Blue Screen of Death appear on an Apple device may or may not trick someone who knows a thing or two about computers. But, at the very least, it should draw a good laugh.

Select this photo for a blue screen that can be sized so it doesn't overfill the screen. I like to place it between the time being displayed and the slide to unlock instruction.

Invert the Colors

iOS's accessibility options can be a goldmine for pranksters. Inverting the colors can make the iPad look all out of whack with no easy way to put it back to normal. Unless your target has really experimented with all the iPad settings, they probably won't figure it out. The funny part is it inverts all colors, not just those in the user interface, so if they go into the Photos app, all of their pictures will have inverted colors.

Make it funnier by suggesting they reboot the device because that solves most problems. Of course, rebooting won't do anything, but the process of doing it will make the issue seem even more serious.

You can get to the accessibility options by going Settings>General>Accessibility.