no idea really how to describe this but.....

[Anonymous]

about a month or so ago a heart thing appeared by my text input box as well as a square-ish pic with an A on it for Gifs which may or may not have already been there.

anyway if you press on the heart you can scribble messages & draw pics.

assuming it was free, who would bother using something akin to an etch a sketch on their phone if it wasn't? 

i sent lots of silly messages via it to my son who has autism, thinking it was a free bit of fun. so why not.

tbh it could be it is free thing is not sure. all's i know is my recent phone bill included a huge charge for messages which is weird as i get unlimited text messages. checked my phone & haven't sent any MMS/photos, sent these by whats app. so are whats app suddenly charging for sending pics or have i actually been charged so much (it says approx 40p for each one.....& there were LOTS) for the heart thing?

also while i'm asking the gif things do they count as pic messages? 

oh also they disappear at some point, the scribbly letter texts as i can't see any actually on my phone though i know i did send them. you can also press the screen & it sends hearts & kisses.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Anonymous

From your description above, it sounds to me like you are using the new Message app that was updated with iOS 10. See the picture below. Does it look familiar?

Going from left to right, you have the camera, the heart message you spoke about and the access to the Message app store. I had a look and it appears that you can send the heart message to any phone, not just another iPhone. If your son does not have an iPhone, the heart message will not go through as a iMessage (which would be free) and will instead send as a traditional SMS/MMS. Thats what you would have been charged for.

I hope the above helps. I do not know if you are able to send GIF's through traditional methods and I am not aware of any way to send the heart messages/scribbles through Whatsapp. Hopefully another member of the community could enlighten us both.

[MI5]

Turn off mms option in your iMessage settings. That will prevent any accidental sending.