Apple’s latest operating system comes with a complete overhaul of iMessage. New emoji! Built-in apps! And stickers! So many stickers. Now, you can drag and drop images of Al Roker, port-a-potties, and animated slices of pizza directly over your message thread. Which is very fun. Or at least, it’s fun right up until you actually want to read a message and find it’s covered by a frowning doughnut or George R.R. Martin. (I am not making up any of these examples.)
If you want to salvage your text messages, you’ve got a few options. (Or if you want to continue driving your friends nuts with stickers, but don’t actually want to have to look at them yourself.) First, you can press and hold on any sticker over a message you want to read. The message will pop out and the stickers will vanish, allowing you a clear view. Once you’re done reading, tap anywhere on the message and the stickers will pop back into place.
If you want a more permanent fix, you’ll have to remove each sticker individually. To do this, press and hold on a sticker. Tap “Sticker Details” at the bottom of the pop-up menu on your phone screen. You’ll see a list of all the stickers attached to a given message. To delete, put your finger on the name of the sticker you want to delete and swipe to the left. You’ll see a red “Delete” box appear on the right-hand side. (Just like deleting or archiving an email.) Tap “Delete.” Repeat the process until you can read your texts again.
