UPDATE on 2/26/2023: an astute reader noticed that this tip wasn’t working and clued me in. After some experimentation, it appears that the Text Delight feature is currently broken and doesn’t function for many Facebook users.
You can type in key phrases (xoxo, best wishes, etc.) on Facebook and they will highlight and show a special effect. But once you finish your post/comment, the formatting may disappear and offer no delight. Your colored words might change to plain text.
I’m asking in various places if this is a bug to be fixed, or if this feature is going away. If I get any response, I will update this post.
You’ve seen these special effects on Facebook for some time now: certain words or phrases, like Congrats or You’ve Got This, do special things in posts and comments. As you type these secret texts on a computer (doesn’t often work in their mobile apps), Facebook colors them in and anyone may click on them later to see a special animation.
These “text delights” are harmless fun, and you should be able to use in most text entry fields on Facebook. The trick may be knowing what triggers the text delights in the first place.
Facebook doesn’t offer a master list of these text delights. And they vary from one country/language to the next. Plus, when Facebook retires an old text delight or introduces a new one, they don’t always announce it. We’re still discovering these easter eggs to this day!
If you want some idea of what text delights are out there, you can simply search the web for “Facebook text delights” or check out YouTube videos about what people have discovered. And when you go to use them, you will know if what you’ve typed will work as soon as you key it in. Text delights change color as soon as you type them into Facebook, to let you know there will be a special effect.
One last thing: you don’t have to use a text delight, if you don’t want to. Let’s say you type GG or xoxo, and Facebook colors it in as a delight. As soon as the color appears, hit your Backspace key one time, and the delight-coloring should disappear. Now you have plain text, with no special effect.
That doesn’t work. I see some people are able to get rid of the despicable “text delights,” that aren’t “delights” at all, but this isn’t the answer to get rid of them when they happen.
Gadzooks! You are right, the backspace trick no longer works! It did at the time of this writing, but no longer. I shall look into this and update the blog entry accordingly. Thank you for letting me know!
Not only can I not backspace to remove the delight, it seems text delights are broken, as well. When I type “congrats” and “xoxo” into a new post, it highlights and looks animated. But after I click Post, the text is plain and ordinary. Is that happening for you as well? I’m testing with multiple personal accounts over here, and can’t get the text delights to work on a computer.
mine will do the same thing wish it was fixed I enjoy all of the delights
For me, the opposite is VERY unfortunately the case; I typed a message with a ‘text delight’ word staying the standard black text after I’d typed it… but upon posting the message, the font color of said word automatically transformed to being red.
I’m in full agreement with Linda, who made the first reply post in this thread… I absolutely DESPISE the damn things. Leave what I TYPE the hell alone, Facebook.