iPhone 4S

Unfortunately you can't send bubble or screen effects with the iPhone 4s or any previous models. The ability to send balloons, confetti, lasers and so on through the Messages app requires iOS 10.0 or later. The iPhone 4s does not support iOS 10.

iPhone 4s owners will also not be able to see any bubble or message effects sent to them. Effects sent to users with unsupported devices will see a blank (sent with _____) message instead.

No, the iPhone 4s does not support iOS 10 or later. The iPhone 4s can only be upgraded to latest version of iOS 9, which is at currently at version 9.3.2 at the time of this post. Apple introduced iOS 10 on Monday, June 13 during its WWDC keynote at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. iOS 10 is only supported on these devices:

iPhone

• iPhone 5
• iPhone 5c
• iPhone 5s
• iPhone SE
• iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
• iPhone 6s and 6 Plus
• iPhone 7 and 7 Plus

iPad

Update #2 (03/28/16): iOS 9.3 is available again for the iPhone 4s. The new the build number is 13E237.

The Wi-Fi Assist feature found in iOS 9 is not supported by the iPhone 4s. The Wi-Fi Assist slider is located in the Cellular section of the Settings app, but it does not appear on iPhone 4s devices. While the iPhone 4s does support iOS 9 not all its features will be available due to the older hardware of the device.