What to text when a guy says he wants to kiss you over text?

A line like this is usually a signal that he has been thinking about you in a physical way and wants you to know. He is not always asking you to agree to anything yet. Sometimes he is testing whether the texting has enough warmth to go somewhere, and sometimes he just wants to be direct because he is tired of hinting. Read the rest of the thread to see which it is. If you have been playful and he is picking up the energy, this is probably him raising the stakes a little. If the conversation has been thin, he may be trying to create momentum, and that is a different read.

Pay attention to how confident the message is. A clear, warm sentence with no hedging means he is comfortable with the idea. A message wrapped in apologies or a lot of qualifiers means he is nervous about how it will land, and your reply can be a little gentler.

The most useful reply usually does two things in order. First it responds to the warmth in what he said, so he knows you noticed he said something real. Second it tells him something about your own interest, even if that interest is cautious. If you are into the idea, you can let that show. If you are not sure yet, you can say the connection feels good and you want to see how things go in person, which leaves the door open without committing. Keep it short. Long explanations about your boundaries or history will make a simple compliment feel heavy.

Leave out anything that shifts the whole conversation into a discussion about kissing. Once you start talking about what you would or would not do physically over text, the moment becomes awkward and he may feel like he got into trouble for being honest.

If he sent this late at night, do not match his intensity right away. A thoughtful reply the next day tends to read as more interested than an instant one that sounds like a reaction. You do not need to wait a week, and a day is usually enough. If you have not replied within a day, a short follow-up that picks the thread back up works better than repeating the original topic, and if he does not respond to that either, the conversation has probably run its course.

If you do want to keep it going, let the next few messages build on your reply rather than escalating every time. If he keeps pushing the physical side after you have made your position clear, that tells you something about how he handles a no or a not yet, and it is fine to close the thread at that point.