Background: Accidents and deaths associated to mobile communications while walking are on the rise, while the influence of phone messaging on the ability to avoid moving obstacles remains poorly understood. Objectives: This study aims to describe the extent to which reading messages at different stages of the avoidance strategy affects circumvention of pedestrians. Methods: Healthy adults (n = 5, 36.2 ± 6 years (mean ±1SD)) were tested while walking overground and viewing a virtual subway station in a helmet mounted display. Three virtual avatars were positioned 7m ahead of the participant (±40° right/left and straight ahead (0°)). As participants walked 0.5m, one avatar randomly moved towards a theoretical point of collision located on the midline. Messages, when present, were randomly delivered at 0.5m and 2.5m of participants' forward displacement. Body movements were recorded with a Vicon system. Results: For diagonal obstacle approaches only, a trend towards reduced minimum walking speed was observed in response to reading phone messages as compared to when no messages were displayed. No consistent changes in obstacle minimal clearance or distance at onset of avoidance strategy were observed with the introduction of text messages. Conclusions: Slower minimum walking speeds in the presence of text messages for diagonally approaching obstacles may have facilitated deciphering the text messages while maintaining a safe clearance from the obstacles during the avoidance strategy. For centrally approaching obstacles, however, such reduction in walking speed would have been unhelpful as a change in walking trajectory is mandatory to prevent a collision in that condition.