Any editor · text-message chats

Animated text-message chats, straight onto your timeline.

Type the chat message by message. Textback draws it bubble by bubble in the look of iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord and 16 more, with typing dots and a sound for every message. Press RENDER and drag the transparent clip onto your timeline, in any editor. In Resolve Studio it lands at the playhead by itself.

Textback: a phone standing in its charging base, a chat of orange and grey bubbles on its screen, the base's keys labelled TYPES & STOPS, PAUSE, TIME, PHOTO, VOICE, VIDEO, STYLE, REVEAL, THEME, PACE, FORMAT and RENDER — Textback 1.0

The tour · under a minute

See the whole app in action.

The whole app in under a minute: pick a style, type the chat, paste in a GIF, press RENDER, and the clip is on the timeline. Captions are on, so it reads with the sound off. Click it for the sound.

How it works

From a few messages to your timeline.

Type the conversation.
Type a message and press Enter: the next one is from the other person. SAMPLE puts in a chat to start from.
Pick the look while it plays.
The preview loops on the phone's screen, so every change shows as you make it. Its speaker key plays the sounds.
Press RENDER.
Drag the clip from the app onto your timeline, in any editor. In Resolve Studio it lands at the playhead by itself, above your footage, sound and all.

The whole app · one window

What you can change.

Textback is a small app that sits beside your editor: a phone standing in its base. The phone's screen is the preview, the base holds every control, and the defaults already look the part.

The Textback window: the preview on the phone's screen on the left, showing the first iMessage bubbles over a checkerboard, and on the right the conversation as a list of rows, the message box, the add keys, STYLE, REVEAL, THEME, PACE, FORMAT and RENDER — Textback 1.0, as it opens

You and them: YOU on the right, THEM on the left. + PERSON makes a group of up to six, and ⇄ swaps sides.
The conversation: One row per message: edit it in place, drag it to move it, add a reaction or a read receipt.
The add keys: TYPES & STOPS (their dots, then nothing), PAUSE, TIME, and PHOTO, VOICE and VIDEO bubbles.
Style: 19 looks, from phone apps and a lock screen to movie titles and your own colours.
Reveal: How each bubble arrives: Slide Up, Pop, Type & Send and six more.
Theme and pace: Light or dark, and how long each message is read before the next.
Format: The clip's size: your Resolve Studio timeline's own, or vertical, 16:9, square, 4:5, 4K or a size you type.
Render: Leaves the clip in the tray to drag into any editor, and lands it at the Resolve Studio playhead.

Set once, in the cog

The contact's header, their typing dots, where the thread sits in the frame, the first message's time, the reveal and hold times, the text size and bubble width, the message sounds, and the Resolve frame behind the preview.

19 styles · 9 reveals

Pick the app. Pick how each message lands.

Each style follows its app's bubbles, colours and read receipts, with message sounds made for Textback rather than copied.

Phone apps: iMessage, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Android, Telegram, Snapchat, Tinder
Lock screen: Notification
Desktop apps: Discord, Slack
Screens: VS Code, Terminal, Pager, Nokia
Movie titles: Her, Thriller, Cinematic
Your own: Custom

The reveals

Slide Up
Pop
Type & Send
Spring Pop
Bounce
Fade
Typewriter
Snap
Word Fade

On the phone styles, Type & Send types your messages into the app's message bar, then sends them.

What a chat can hold

Typing dots
Reactions
Read receipts
Timestamps
Photos and GIFs
Voice notes
Videos
Avatars
Group chats up to six
Contact header
Colour emoji

The phone styles draw them all, the others what their app would. Voice notes and videos play silent: their sound is yours to add on the timeline.

Specification

What you are installing.

Any editor: Drag inAnything that opens a ProRes 4444 .mov with transparency
Resolve: StudioPlaces the clip at the playhead. Version 21.1 or later, External scripting set to Local in Preferences, then restart Resolve. The free version takes it dragged in
Output: ProRes 4444Transparent, the sounds on their own track. Your Resolve Studio timeline's frame rate, otherwise 30 fps
Shape: AnyYour Resolve Studio timeline's own, vertical otherwise. 16:9, square, 4:5, 4K or a size you type
Install: Windows + MacA signed installer for Windows and a notarized app for Apple silicon Macs
Price: FreeAnd it stays free

Free, and it stays free

Get Textback 1.0.

The app for Windows or Mac, about 180 MB.