How To: 12 April Fool's Day Pranks for Your Smartphone-Addicted Family & Friends

April Fool's Day, aka National Screw with Your Friends Day, is finally here.

You can always pull a conventional prank, like strategically placing a whoopee cushion on your mom's chair, but that joke has been exhausted generations before smartphones were around. We live in a day and age where smack cam is the new level of pranking, so it's time to step your game up, novices.

Not only can you record pranks and place them on popular social media sites for your friends to feel humiliation from the public, but you can use some innocent mobile apps and tricks to mess with your friends' devices. It's just too easy.

#1. Make Them (Ahem... Their Phones) Fart

Although whoopee cushions are definitely worn out, farts will always make people laugh, regardless the age group. Bring this stale prank into the 21st century with some hilarious farting apps.

Using a free Android application called Motion Fart, you can place the device in your friend's bag and let it fart every time movement is detected, or just make it fart whenever you feel like it. With Fart for Free on iOS, you can set an intensity level, set a countdown, stealthily place your phone next to your friend, then let her rip!

Both methods should get you similar, comedic results.

#2. Charge Phones with Kinetic Energy & Touch

We all know some pretty dense and gullible people, so for these special characters, we have some special pranks. Fool these people into thinking that your phone is charging in the most absurd, unconventional methods possible.

By using Fake Wind Charger for Android (APK here) and Techno Charger for iPhone (sadly, this has been removed from the iOS App Store), these daft individuals will believe that you're converting kinetic energy on your Android device, or give the appearance that your touch is charging your iPhone. You can also select other methods, like shake, blow, or tap.

Let your friends try blowing on your phone and enjoy laughing at their stupid attempt—phones can't detect your blowing, idiot!

#3. Capture Your Friends' Ghosts on Camera

Capturing a ghost on camera is hard—trust me, I've tried. Thankfully, I can manufacture a ghost and crop it into a picture with Ghost Prank for Android and Ghost Capture for iOS. Crop a ghost into your friend's picture and make them think their place is haunted.

If you're skilled enough, these pictures can come out pretty well. Upload the picture innocently, have some random friends point out the strange ghostly figures, then play dumb and act like you have no idea what they're talking about.

#4. Give Your Friends Tinnitus

Annoy your friends, and anyone around you, by giving them that tinnitus effect (ringing in the ears sound). Subtlety enable a high-frequency noise, barely audible, but enough to annoy the hell out of people. With High Pitch Blaster for Android (APK here) and High Frequency Noise for iOS, just stand back and observe their faces as they become baffled by the ringing.

If you have the resources available, like a older spare device, launch the app and tuck the device away in your coworker's drawer—hopefully their ears don't start dripping blood. For non-techie pranks to pull on your coworkers, check out these 10 hilarious office pranks.

#5. Create Fake Conversations to Post Publicly

Publicly humiliate your friends by creating fake SMS conversations and posting them to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. The free Android app is called Yazzy (Fake Conversations), and it even lets you customize the screenshot-look by adding carrier names, battery life, and data connections. Sorry, this app is strictly for Android.

#6. Kill Them with Anticipation

For all you iPhone users know how annoying it is when you're in an active conversation and those three text-in-progress dots come up. Well, save the Text-In-Progress Animation and send it to any iPhone user to see how long it takes for them to get annoyed.

It will send it as a photo, so hopefully they don't notice and click on it. Yes, the dots are animated after you send them.

#7. You Broke My Android!

Make your buddy think your ruined his device's display. Grab the Crack Your Screen app and set it to activate it by motion (dropping motion) and give the appearance of a broken Android device. It also displays their actual apps and wallpaper in the background for a more realistic effect.

Unfortunately, Apple doesn't allow apps that "mimic the functionality of the iPhone", and apparently cracked screen apps fall into that category. Lame.

You Don't Need Apps to Prank Someone's Device

There are always the classics that don't require an Android or iPhone app, and are still pretty hysterical. These are just a few, so if you have some of your own ideas, please share them below. The more the merrier.

#8. Swap Their Contact Information

Switch numbers in a friend's phone, like his mom's and girlfriend's, so he texts the his message to the wrong recipient. This can make for some interesting conversations.

#9. Switch Out Their Ringtones

If you're looking to really embarrass someone, apply a ridiculous ringtone, like an orgasm sound clip to their ringer. Then set their volume on high and call 'em when you're out in public. You can even make your own ringtones for them. Don't know how? There are plenty of ways.

#10. Give Their Phone Number in a Craigslist Ad

This has been done to me, and it's not for the timid. It's against Craigslist regulations, but you can create a fake ad advertising a ''really cheap iPhone", or something similar, and place your friend's number in the ad as the contact number. Get creative with this one, and do it to someone who won't rat you out. This is effectively the same thing as the classic number-on-the-bathroom-stall prank.

#11. Ask Your Parents if They Want Some Weed

For the teenagers amongst us, this simple prank could send your parents into a tizzy. Inspired by comedian Nathan Fielder, the premise was simple enough: "Text your parents 'got 2 grams for $40' then right after 'Sorry ignore that txt. Not for you' Then tweet pic of their response." Check out some of the best responses here.

#12: Swap Shortcuts in iOS Dictionary

A classic, but always hilarious, prank is to switch shortcuts for words or terms to something ridiculous in the iOS dictionary. Like "hey" to "I'm dumb" or "owm" to "I need a life". Or you can do what Kenzie did and switch "dirty clothes" for "acid" on her mom's iPhone—sounds innocent enough, but definitely funny:

Bonus: Computer Pranks

There is a whole world of computer pranks at your disposable, but the ones listed below are my two favorites.

#1. Give Them a Fake Update Screen

Fool and also scare your friends by applying a Fake Update Screen to their Mac or Windows computer. It's as easy as picking a screen, entering full screen mode, and watching them panic. The cursor will disappear and the Enter button will bring up a fake terminal message.

If you're an extremely skilled hacker, you can haunt your friend's computer screen. Check out Null Byte for more details.

#2. Make Your Neighbors Think the NSA Is Watching Them

If you're savvy enough, change your network name to NSA Surveillance Van #4. The next time your neighbors peer through their local networks, they'll see this and think twice about what they do online. They should be thinking twice about what they do online anyway, thanks to all of the skilled Null Byters out there.

Check out the Computer Pranks World for more PC-friendly pranks.

Whichever prank you pull, make sure it's all in good fun and you don't do it to someone with a bad temper, like Christian Bale (video may be NSFW). Let us know how these, or any of your pranks, worked out for you in the comments section below.

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