When iOS 10 debuted with its new Message Effects animations, one slightly obscure requirement that tripped up many users was the need to have the Reduce Motion setting turned OFF for background and bubble animations to play back. Many users were initially confused as to why animations on received messages weren’t playing, nor could animations be sent in outgoing messages. Even those who figured it out were left with the uncomfortable choice of turning all motion effects back on systemwide, or living without the cool new iMessage animation features.
Fortunately, Apple addressed this in iOS 10.1, with a new “Auto-play Message Effects” setting in the Reduce Motion section (under Settings, General, Accessibility). This option only appears when Reduce Motion is enabled, and allows you to choose whether or not Message Effects will play automatically on incoming messages. Even when this option is disabled, however, messages will come in with a button allowing you to choose to manually play the animation; effects will no longer be entirely suppressed as they were in iOS 10.