Complete Guide to Creating Fake Screenshots

Creating realistic message screenshots is essential for marketers, content creators, and designers. Whether you're showcasing testimonials, creating tutorials, or building marketing materials, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know.

Why Use Fake Screenshots?

Before diving into the how-to, let's understand the legitimate use cases for mock screenshots:

• Marketing materials: Showcase product reviews or customer testimonials
• Content creation: Create engaging social media content
• Design mockups: Present app concepts or UI designs
• Educational content: Illustrate tutorials or documentation
• Film and video production: Create realistic props for scenes

Step 1: Choose Your Platform

The first step is selecting which messaging platform you want to replicate. Mockly supports 17+ platforms including WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack, Discord, Instagram, and more.

Here's a WhatsApp mockup example:

Step 2: Set Up Your Conversation

Once you've chosen your platform, you'll need to define the participants. Every conversation needs:

• Sender: The person sending messages (typically "you")
• Receiver(s): The other participant(s) in the conversation

For professional contexts, platforms like Slack work great:

Step 3: Craft Your Messages

The key to realistic mockups is natural-sounding dialogue. Here are some tips:

1. Keep it conversational: Use contractions and casual language
2. Add realistic timing: Space out timestamps naturally
3. Include reactions: Add emoji reactions where appropriate
4. Match the platform's style: Each platform has its own communication norms

Step 4: Customize the Appearance

Mockly lets you customize several visual elements:

• Dark/Light mode: Toggle between appearance modes
• Device status: Show battery level, time, and signal
• Device frame: Add or remove the phone frame
• Background: Use transparent backgrounds for flexible placement

Step 5: Export Your Screenshot

Once you're happy with your mockup, you can export it as:

• PNG: Best for most use cases with transparent background support
• JPEG: Smaller file size for web use
• SVG: Scalable for print materials

Social Media Mockups

Beyond chat screenshots, you can also create social media post mockups. Here's an Instagram example:

AI Chat Mockups

Need to showcase AI conversations? Mockly supports ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok:

Best Practices

To create the most effective mock screenshots:

1. Stay authentic: Base mockups on real scenarios
2. Maintain consistency: Use the same style across a campaign
3. Consider your audience: Choose platforms your audience uses
4. Test different formats: A/B test light vs dark mode

Start Creating

Ready to create your own mock screenshots? Get started with Mockly and bring your marketing materials to life.