01
The format is huge and simple
A texting story plays over gameplay footage. Minecraft parkour, subway runners, satisfying clips. Viewers stay for the footage and finish the story. The chat sits on top and the game runs underneath.
Backdrops
Put gameplay behind
your chat story.
Minecraft parkour under a texting story. Your own gameplay clip under a prank conversation. A drone shot behind a product chat. Turn Phone Backdrop on and the phone sits on a stage you frame yourself, while the conversation keeps its pacing, its typing and its sounds.
Curated loops from the Lite plan. Your own videos and pasted links from Creator.
Frame the shot.
Live demo. The footage is a built-in loop from the product and these are the same camera-view sliders the editor ships.
The format
Gameplay underneath.
Story on top.
02
The old way was a pipeline
Screen-record the game, drop a chat overlay in an editor, keyframe the bubbles, re-render after every script change. One typo meant a full re-render of the whole thing.
03
Here it is one toggle
Write the conversation, turn Phone Backdrop on, drop in your footage. The engine keeps the chat pacing and loops the video behind it. Edit the script any time and re-export in seconds.
Where the stage comes from
Five types. One toggle.
The Backdrop sub-tab's own menu, straight from the editor. What you see here is what the export renders.
Video
A looping video as the stage. Six curated loops are built in from the Lite plan. From Creator, upload your own footage or paste a link to it: gameplay, a screen recording, a drone shot.
Lite for loops, Creator for your ownImage
A still photo or pattern behind the phone. Curated patterns are included. Your own upload joins from the Creator plan.
Lite for patterns, Creator for your ownAnimated
The drifting gradient presets. Zero footage, still alive. The stage moves gently while the conversation types on top of it.
LiteGradient
The classic gradient palette as the stage. Pick a mood and go.
LiteSolid
A flat color with nothing else. When the story is the star, the stage gets out of the way.
LiteStory mode has its own surface: the story panel's Background tile splits into a Color group and a Backdrop group (patterns, custom media, the video loops and adjustment sliders). Your chat wallpaper is never touched. The backdrop is the layer behind the phone.
Camera view
The phone is the subject.
The stage is your set.
Zoom
Push the phone closer or pull it back. A big phone for a text-heavy story, a small phone when the footage is the star.
Rotate
Angle the phone for a casual handheld feel or line it up dead straight.
Tilt
The 3D tilt that makes the stage feel like a desk or a wall instead of a flat page.
Pan
Slide the phone left or right to keep the interesting part of your footage visible.
The honest table
Where backdrops work.
ChatThe phone on a stage: looping video, image, pattern, animated gradient, gradient or solid.
StoryThe story panel's Background tile: patterns, custom media, the video loops and adjustments.
ThoughtThe same phone-on-a-stage treatment as chat mode.
UnsentUnsent drafts render the same stage behind the phone.
NotificationsFrameless format. No stage.
Comments, Hook, SlidesThese formats own the full frame. No stage.
Pairs well with
Build the whole story.
Add anything between the messages
Photos, GIFs, videos and narrator cards that interrupt the conversation and hand it back.
Make the phone ring
A fake phone call video with real voices. The strongest beat a texting story can drop.
Footage, the filmmaker way
Transparent WebM and chroma green exports when the conversation needs to land in a cut.
Questions
Answered straight.
Can I put my own video behind the messages?
Yes. On the Creator plan and above you can upload your own video or paste a link to one, gameplay footage and screen recordings included, up to 5 MB per file. It loops behind the conversation.
Where do the backdrop videos come from?
Three sources: the built-in curated loops included from the Lite plan, your own uploaded file or a link you paste. The link is imported, checked and used automatically as the looping backdrop.
Does the backdrop change the timing of my conversation?
No. Backdrops are always muted and decorative. The conversation keeps its own pacing, typing and sounds. The loop simply repeats until the video ends.
Can I control how the phone sits on the backdrop?
Yes. Camera-view sliders let you zoom, rotate, tilt and pan the phone over the backdrop, with five quick presets: Centered, Tilted left, Tilted right, From above and Side glance.
Does this work in every mode?
Phone backdrops work in chat mode, thought mode and unsent drafts. Story mode has its own backdrop row in the story panel. Notification, comment, hook and slides formats do not use backdrops.
Can I use Minecraft gameplay as the background?
Yes. Any footage works: Minecraft parkour, subway-style runners, satisfying clips, drone shots. Upload the clip or paste a link to it and it runs behind the whole conversation.
Your footage.
Their story.
Write the conversation, turn the backdrop on, frame the shot. The first export is free.