How to Sound Angry, Upset, or Mad via Text: 9 Tips & Tricks

• Avoiding someone's texts or replying with short, curt messages comes off as angry.
• Typing in all-caps makes your texts come across as if they were yelling.
• Putting a period at the end of your sentences makes your words come off as mad or upset.

Being Evasive via Text

Wait a long time before responding to text messages. After receiving a text from someone that you dislike or want to trick, wait a while before replying. Unreturned text messages can be frustrating and irritating, and not responding right away can make you seem uninterested, cold and rude. The silent treatment is a passive aggressive expression of rage, and it can have quite an impact in communicating anger.

Reply with short answers. Short sentences can sound abrupt or harsh in a text message, creating a negative tone for the exchange. Texting is already a form of communication with very little intimacy, so using this medium to communicate in a curt manner is especially dismissive. Use simple "yes" or "no" answers, or terse responses such as "okay" or "fine", to convey your disinterest in prolonging conversation. For example: "No thanks." "That's okay." "Yes, I am. "That's fine."

Block texts or activate an auto-reply message. Blocking someone's texts demonstrates anger through an unwillingness to communicate. Alternatively, you can activate an auto-response to texts that an individual will receive whenever they text message you. To give the impression that you're angry, customize a message that suggests that you are avoiding the text; do not indicate any intention to respond later, as most auto-reply texts generally do. Example: "I am not responding to texts."

Using Symbols to Express Anger

Send unhappy or angry faced emojis. If subtlety fails, you can use emojis to convey anger via text. Emoticons and emojis make the expression of emotions more concise and accessible, and reduce the ambiguity of a message’s meaning. The vast number of emojis available can make pretending to be angry over text a creative endeavor!

Text in capital letters. Typing in capital letters has come to signify yelling, making it an ideal way to sound angry in a text message. It is a visually intense and attention-grabbing way of letting someone know how you feel, and a good strategy for conveying rage. To sound angry, try writing neutral statements all in caps. Example: "Don't worry about it!" vs. "DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT!"

End your sentences with periods. Ending a sentence with a period while texting is often perceived as less sincere than using no punctuation at all. The finality of using a period is considered overly formal, angry, and unenthusiastic within the context of a text message, where casual or informal writing is normally preferred. Along these lines, opt to use periods over other punctuation to make otherwise friendly phrases sound angry (e.g. “Have a good night!” vs. “Have a good night.”)

Using Angry-Sounding Language

Use aggressive language. The most straightforward way to pretend that you're angry over text is to use mean or aggressive language to get the point across. Whether you insult the person, criticize them, or clearly state that you are angry, being hostile is the most unmistakable way to express anger. Use one of the following phrases to sound like you're mad: "Shut up!" "You'll be sorry!" "Get lost!"

Be creative with your choice of vocabulary. Emotions are shaped by culture and environment, and vocabulary can leave an impression by expressing very specific emotional experiences. Along these lines, you can express anger in an impactful way by choosing creative and unique phrasing to describe it. Instead of simply texting, "I'm angry at you", employ more intense language like: "I am absolutely irate with you." "I'm disgusted and dismayed by you." "I am furiously disappointed in you."

Use a hyperbole. Hyperbole is a literary device wherein the words or phrasing exaggerate a point by conveying something that is too over the top to be plausible. This is an excellent way to make a strong point and a very easy way to pretend to be angry. Try phrases like: "I'm so angry I could explode!" "I have never felt this mad in my entire life!"