This occurs when a character is looking at something on a phone, which is small and hard to show to the audience, and the contents of the screen are shown as a pop-up floating somewhere in the midst of the action. This is done to avoid having the character either read or say what it is he's looking at, or the camera cutting to a tight shot of the screen over their shoulder or from their POV. In this way, viewers are kept in the loop without having possibly needless exposition dialogue or close shots that limit action in other places.
While most often used with cell phones, it can be used to show what's on any kind of screen without showing the screen itself.
This video
by Every Frame a Painting has further examination and analysis on this trope in the first half (the second half is about the portrayal of the internet).
Compare Computer Screen Story, which differs by having the full screen capture take up the entire frame. Contrast Sounding It Out, and Viewer-Friendly Interface, which is having impractical interfaces on computers that are easily seen by the audience.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Like in Laid-Back Camp, the cast of Asteroid in Love text a lot. While most of them are displayed in a phone-screen cut, in many cases they are depicted as LINE screens appearing on on-screen speech bubbles.
- Even in the even more high-tech future of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, online-based "telepathic" or rather neural-implant communication is shown as scrolling text balloons on screen. It also provides real-time English translation for the original Japanese dub and for non-English audiences.
- Occurs frequently in Laid-Back Camp whenever characters text with each other, usually with small Super-Deformed versions of their faces next to their texts.
Comic Strips
- Peanuts: A variation was used when Snoopy was typing on his typewriter, and the text would be shown in the air above him. This was all the way back in the '60s.
- In a Garfield comic strip, Garfield attempts to write poetry by dipping his paws in ink and pressing them on the paper. In the air, we see what we think is what Garfield is writing, but when Jon Arbuckle comes to see what Garfield is doing, all we see on the paper is just paw prints.
- Done in Zits frequently, since Jeremy, being a child of the 21st century, quite often communicates via text. The strip often uses these to satirize modern teen's near-dependence on texting, even when there's another person mere feet from them.
Films — Animated
- Used in The LEGO Ninjago Movie when Lloyd Garmadon's classmates start texting to complain about having to wait for the school bus at the same stop as him.
- The Peanuts Movie: As in the original strip, Snoopy's story appears in the air above him as he types it out on his typewriter.
Films — Live-Action
- Am I OK?: Texts between characters are rendered as color-coded textboxes near their phones.
- In the French lesbian romance film Besties, all of the SMS that are exchanged appear in big letters on the screen as they are typed.
- The Canyons: Done in an unusual way. Tara has some sort of app called texTV that causes her texts to simultaneously pop up on her TV screen. So that is how the audience sees the anonymous texts from someone warning Tara about Christian and demanding to meet.
- Desperados (2020): When Wesley is writing her hate email to Jared, we get a pop-up screen showing its contents, including misspellings and autocorrections.
- In order for the audience to follow the chat conversations in Disconnect, some of its content is displayed as on-screen text.
- The Fault in Our Stars did this, with sketchy "hand-drawn" bubbles popping up whenever main characters August and Hazel texted each other. They come across as a sketch of iPhone text bubbles.
- In Fruitvale Station, Oscar's texts and various other cellphone functions (like searching his address book) are displayed in pop-ups.
- Played with in the film adaptation of iBoy. Whenever Tom texts someone, the message will show up like this for the viewer, but this is because he's actually got the ability to see electrical signals. He doesn't even have to use his hands.
- In Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist, this occurs when Rayford Steele is looking up things about the Rapture on his phone, and when Dirk Burton tries to hack into the Eden website using his computer.
- Men, Women & Children makes use of this a lot, often in crowd scenes to showcase all the intimate (or mundane) secret thoughts going on in people's heads.
- Non-Stop: The terrorists initially contact Marks via text, which is shown appearing next to his phone. All phone communications are displayed this way, even one when he's gotten a hold of a suspect's phone, which has a cracked screen, also visible in the pop-up.
- Other Halves has highly interactive text message (as well as app screens) that disappear behind objects on-screen, as if they really are floating in space. One even plays as a Meaningful Background Event, showing the audience that a character left her phone behind.
- In The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, text relevant to the scene often appears on the background. One time Walter gets a text from a coworker and it appears carved on a mountainside behind him.
- Sex Drive, In the first scene when Ian is messaging "Ms_Tasty," over the internet on his laptop.
- The Shallows: Seen as Nancy looks at pictures on her phone, texts with her friend, and even has a video call with her sister and father, with the video screens moving aside as she walks through them. Her watch is also shown this way as she keeps checking when the tides come in, and when she's using it as a timer or stopwatch.
- Spider-Man: Homecoming: Briefly used as Peter sends a text to Happy Hogan telling him he's ready for his next mission... still.
Live-Action TV
- Arrowverse: Batwoman uses this method to display texts. As well as fellow Arrowverse show Black Lightning.
- The second episode of Burn Notice used pop-ups as Micheal texted his friends, although they didn't notice because they were too busy arguing. Later episodes did away with the trope, so it only existed early on.
- CSI: Cyber: Not surprisingly, many displays are shown floating in the air next to the devices, though they also use close-ups of the screens.
- UK Soap Opera Hollyoaks will do this sometimes, especially if the text is important to the storyline. This was pretty unique for the time.
- House of Cards (US): Used frequently, with characters texting each other furiously to make deals, arrange meetings and conduct other governmental or personal business. Commentary tracks reveal that the creators felt their use of this trope was ground-breaking and were dismayed to learn that the same effect was being deployed in Sherlock while they were finishing the first season.
- "Social Hour" from The Inside Man uses a form of this. Each time that Mark Shepherd encounters a different employee at Kromocom, a popup appears showing all of the information he's gathered about them on social media, including their various Twitter posts, YouTube videos, etc.
- Jane the Virgin uses this whenever text conversations are involved.
- Every text message in Jejak Suara Adzan is shown to the audience via a pop-up.
- Ms. Marvel (2022) has a variation; rather than have the messages pop up in text balloons, they're instead incorporated into the background, like having neon signs light up with the messages or them appearing on road markings.
- MeTV had a series of TV promos featuring this.
- In one ad for Hogan's Heroes, Col. Klink texts Sgt. Schultz asking where Hogan is. Schultz responds with his catchphrase.
Schultz: I know Nussink!
Klink: U type with an accent?? - Another promo for Gilligan's Island:
Li'l Buddy: Where R U?
Skipper: On an island. Why?
Li'l Buddy: Just checking... SOS LOL!
- In one ad for
- This trope pops up (no pun intended) on The Mindy Project. The episode "You've Got Sext" uses it a lot, as it's about Morgan and Pete taking Mindy's cell and sending fake texts to Cliff.
- Selfie's main character, Eliza Dooley, spends most of her time looking at one or more screens simultaneously. While all the things she's looking at are done in this manner, important text conversations are usually displayed more prominently and legibly, while the less relevant windows are shown in thumbnail, represented as icons, or scaled-down.
- Sherlock is the Trope Codifier, making considerable use of this, showing texts and anything else on a phone screen floating in the air, and allowing Sherlock to have his Establishing Character Moment when he's not even present!
- Web of Lies is an Investigation Discovery series about online relationships that lead to disastrous, sometimes tragic, results. Given the nature of the subject matter, it should be no surprise that much of the correspondence between the subjects is shown this way.
- In the first episode of Utopia (UK), a group of characters have a conversation on the forum dedicated to a cult Graphic Novel called The Utopia Experiments. Each line of text appears floating next to whoever the camera is focused on. If it is the person that is typing the message, it appears next to their head. At one point, a line text distorts as it passes behind a glass of wine.
- In "Thanksgiving (Canada)" from Yellowjackets, Walter's texts to Misty appear in this form.
Sports
- The British pop-culture segment of the London Olympic Games opening ceremony showed these as it portrayed young people going out for a night on the town, phones in hand, keeping in contact with each other, and culminating with two of them getting a Relationship Upgrade on not-Facebook.
Theme Parks
- Étincelle: The Curse of the Black Opal 4D movie from Futuroscope: The pre-show prologue in the French Superheroes Museum (displayed while the audience is gathering in the anteroom before the main show) has Alice texting to her friends and family about her new job, with the text dialogues flashing on the screen. When Alice denies having ever promised to Teddy she'd be his partner at the cosplay contest, he recalls the exchange on his phone and it's shown this way too.
Video Games
- Batman: The Telltale Series does this whenever Bruce Wayne sends or receives text messages.
- Being a ΔΙΚ: While texting was previously only shown by going into the MC's messages app on his phone, we see several active conversations between characters in this form starting from Season 3, including when Zoey talks to Tremolo in "Riding the Waves", when an uncommitted Tremolo chats with several girls in "Vixens", and when Zoey talks to Jonah while working in her mom's salon in "Calm Before the Snow".
- The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation is already played in first-person, but even then the onscreen text will appear as speech bubbles, while your phone's screen will be fuzzy instead.
- Gemini: Heroes Reborn, a game played from a first-person perspective, displays incoming texts popping up on a corner of the screen.
- Goodbye Volcano High: The text messages seen throughout the game are portrayed this way, popping up on either the left of right side of the screen, while Fang's reactions are seen on the opposite side.
- Done in Splinter Cell: Conviction whenever objectives are consulted. Instead of popping up in an in-game display, the objectives appear in the environment itself.
Web Animation
- MoniRobo shows characters interacting with one another via text messages. The original Japanese channel uses text pop-ups while the English dub uses a phone overlay.
- Refreshing Stories: Like MoniRobo above, the characters will be frequently be communicating via texting. The English version uses an phone overlay while the original Japanese channel uses text pop-ups.
- Trouble Busters: The characters frequently communicate with each other by texting, which is shown using a phone overlay.
Webcomics
- Done in MegaTokyo whenever characters communicate via text messages (for example, Erika and Kimiko's fanboys)
Web Original
- Apple Texts features a blend of both Pop-Up Texting and Sounding It Out, in which the texts appear on screen and are "read out" by the respective senders.
- Muppet Viral Videos: "Beaker's Ballad" has internet comments appearing in the air next to him, really tormenting him, and laughing as he gets set on fire.
- In the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks musical short "Perfect Day for Fun" released on Hasbro Studios Shorts' YouTube channel, the main characters try to find a common meeting place at their school carnival. As they communicate via text, they have pop-ups indicating what they are saying, although they only do this through symbols, with no actual words displayed in the pop-up (e.g. "Butterfly Star @ Photo Booth" means "Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle are near the photo booths").
- Viral Texts also features pop-up texts where the texts appear on screen and are "read out" by the respective senders.
Western Animation
- Happens in the Adventure Time episode "Stakes" between Princess Bubblegum and Peppermint Butler.
- Parodied in the American Dad! episode "Kloger" when Roger is texting Klaus. Once Francine steps back, she sees the floating text bubbles, but when she touches one, it burns her finger off. Afterwards, Roger states that text bubbles are made of flesh-eating bacteria, and Francine cowers as the text bubbles begin to encircle her while audibly growling.
- Used in the Rick and Morty episode "A Rickconvenient Mort" to show the text messages Morty and Planetina exchange.
- The Windshield Wiper: One person texts the other (as the film shows only the communications satellite that's relaying the texts) and says "Yesterday was fun, right?". The other person agrees. After a couple of more texts the first person says that they felt a connection and they really want to see the other person again, and again, and again. This vignette ends with the other person's text window going "...".