What to text when he's texting less after talking daily

The silence looks identical whether he's swamped with a work project or whether he's talking to someone else who's moved up his priority list. You can't diagnose this from the gap alone. What matters is his pattern: did he go from texting throughout the day to replying once every few days, or did he go from one reply per day to one reply per week? Did his messages get shorter? Is he still initiating, or are you always reaching out first now?

If he was clearly engaged before and suddenly isn't, something changed. Your job isn't to bring back the old dynamic by being more interesting or available. Your job is to send one reply that tells you whether he actually wants to keep talking to you.

A good reply does two things at once. First, it gives him a real reason to write back, not just a yes-or-no question or small talk. Small talk when someone's already half-checked-out just gives him an easy one-word exit. Second, it subtly requires effort to ignore. This doesn't mean being difficult or cold. It means being specific about something he cares about, referencing something he told you before, or asking something that takes more than three seconds to answer.

The reply should also feel normal and unbothered, like you haven't been clock-watching his response time. If it reads like you're calling out his silence or testing him, he'll either get defensive or disappear completely.

Send your reply during normal hours when he's likely to see it in context, not late at night. Then stop texting him until he replies. This matters. If you send a second message while waiting, you've made it impossible to tell whether he's actually interested or just too polite to ignore someone who keeps showing up.

If he doesn't reply in 3-4 days, or if he replies but falls back into the same sparse pattern, that's your answer. You stop initiating after that. One more thing: don't wait months hoping he'll come around. Give it two weeks of him being inconsistent after your reply. After that, you're just holding space for someone who isn't choosing you.