The Capital Letter Lie

My friend's boyfriend said he was out, but we knew he was lying. The first letter of his incoming iMessages weren't capitalized—a clear giveaway that he was typing from a computer.

By default, both iPhones and most Android devices capitalize the first word in a sentence, no matter what app you're using. You can easily turn the feature off, but most people don't. On a desktop, chat apps like Slack and Skype don't capitalize messages automatically. iMessage does, but many people have turned the feature off, maybe because the subtle difference has become codified.

As a result, two subtle styles of communicating have emerged—one in which all sentences are capitalized, and one in which they're not. The first indicates someone is on their phone, and the second that they're typing from a desktop. For people you communicate with frequently—like significant others, close friends and family— your capitalized letters are a way for them to know what you're up to, before you even tell them.

When I ask a coworker a question, and her delayed response reads "Yes" rather than "yes," I know she's away from her desk, before she tells me. If the friend I'm meeting up with suddenly writes "Haha" rather than "haha," I know he's left work, and is on his way.

Sometimes though, the capitalized letter trick doesn't work.

For example, when a new crush's text reads "let's hang out," rather than "Let's hang out," it could actually mean one of two things. It could indicate they're on a computer, or that they revised their message, removing the capitalized letter in the process. If you're sure your texting partner is on a phone and you receive a message without a capitalized first letter, it's fairly safe to bet they redrafted their text.

I've also carefully lowercased letters on my phone in messages to coworkers, in an effort to disguise the fact that I'm mobile. Several other Motherboard staffers admitted to doing the same.

That we notice the difference between 'a' and 'A' in the first place is evidence that maybe we spend too much time communicating behind screens. More interestingly, it's a tiny example of the strange and subtle ways our phones and computers change the information encapsulated in a message.

You thought you were merely saying "sorry I can't make it," but your lowercase S also revealed that you're probably watching Netflix on your laptop instead.