The best pranks to pull on your partner are small, silly and over in a minute: cotton balls in their sneakers, your face hidden all over the house, a fake update on their laptop. The goal is a shriek, then a laugh, then them plotting revenge. Below are 25 harmless pranks for a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife, the ones to leave alone, and how to reveal a prank so it ends in a laugh, not a fight.
What Makes a Good Partner Prank?
A good partner prank passes one test: would you laugh if they did it straight back to you tomorrow? You live together or see each other all the time, so a prank war is a long game. Keep each round cheap, quick to undo and aimed at the situation, never at something they feel insecure about. Nothing that costs money, nothing that touches trust, and nothing in front of people they want to impress.
The sweet spot is a double take: they see something slightly wrong, look again, and work out it was you. That moment is the whole joke.
25 Harmless Pranks to Pull on Your Partner
Phone and texts
- The contact name switch. Change your name in their phone to "Your Biggest Fan" or "Do Not Answer (Unless It Is Me)." Then text them something sweet and wait.
- The autocorrect betrayal. Add a text replacement on their phone so "love you" turns into "love you more than pizza, but only just." On iPhone it lives in Settings, General, Keyboard, Text Replacement. Undo it the same day.
- The pet is texting. Use our Fake Text Message generator to make a screenshot of the dog (or the cat) texting them a list of demands. Send it mid-workday.
- The mystery ping. Hide your phone under their pillow and play a sound from our notification sounds every couple of minutes while they try to find their phone.
- The call from nobody. Use our Fake Call to make your phone ring with a caller called "The Moon," answer it with a totally straight face, and say "they want to talk to you."
Around the house
- Cotton ball sneakers. Stuff the toes of their shoes with cotton balls. The confused foot wiggle is the payoff.
- Your face, everywhere. Print a pile of photos of your face and hide them in the fridge, the cereal box, the sock drawer, the medicine cabinet and inside the toilet paper roll. They will keep finding them for weeks.
- The googly-eye fridge. Stick googly eyes on everything in the fridge so the whole shelf stares back at them.
- Upside-down frames. Flip every photo frame in the house upside down and say nothing at all.
- The slow furniture creep. Move one chair an inch further from the table every day. Act baffled when they notice.
- Bubble wrap rug. Slide bubble wrap under the bath mat or the rug by the bed for a 6 a.m. surprise.
- The sock drawer full of balloons. Fill their sock drawer to the top with blown-up balloons.
- The mirror note. Leave a sticky note on the bathroom mirror: "You look amazing today. Also, check your teeth." There is nothing in their teeth.
- The labeled everything. Label every object in one room with sticky notes ("lamp," "chair," "your favorite person") and leave one on yourself.
Tech pranks
- The update that never ends. When they step away from their laptop, open our fake iOS update or fake Windows update full screen.
- The cracked screen. Put our fake broken screen on their phone or tablet and leave it face up on the counter.
- Hacker mode. Open Hacker Typer on their computer, type a few lines and tell them you finally "got into the mainframe."
- The dying phone. Open the fake low battery screen on their phone just as they reach for it.
- The spider on the screen. The bug on screen prank puts a creature crawling across their display. Best on someone who is mildly, not seriously, scared of bugs.
Sound pranks
- Movie night betrayal. Hide a phone under a couch cushion and play something from our fart sounds at the quietest moment of the film.
- The creaky closet. Play a creak or a knock from our scary sounds from inside the closet while they get ready for bed. Only for partners who love a good spook.
- The phantom doorbell. Play a doorbell sound from another room and watch them answer the door to nobody, twice.
Long game
- The rotating spoon. Hide the same spoon somewhere new every day: their coat pocket, their laptop bag, their pillowcase. Never mention it.
- The picture swap. Replace their phone lock screen photo with an extremely zoomed-in photo of your nostril.
- The anniversary that is not. Leave a card that says "Happy 1,000 days of you putting up with me." Do the math first. Or do not, and let them check.
Pranks to Skip
Some pranks are popular online and end relationships offline. Leave these alone:
- Fake cheating texts or screenshots, even "obviously" fake ones.
- Fake pregnancy announcements, fake breakups and fake proposals.
- Anything involving their money, their job or their real deadlines.
- Reading their private messages to set up a prank.
- Scare pranks on someone with anxiety or a heart condition.
- Anything filmed and posted without them saying yes first.
How to Reveal a Prank Without a Fight
Reveal fast. The longer a prank runs, the more it stops being a joke. Say "got you" with a grin, point to the googly eyes, and give them a hug. If they do not laugh, apologize and undo it on the spot. A quick sorry keeps the prank war fun, and they will get you back next week anyway.
Want more ideas? Our pranks to do on friends and text pranks work just as well on a partner.
