How to Go to the Beginning of a Text Message on an iPhone

By Todd Bowerman

Text messaging is fast and efficient.
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Thanks to the ease of carrying on a text message conversation on the iPhone, it doesn’t take much time to create a long message log with each of your most commonly contacted friends and co-workers. The iPhone only displays a limited number of messages at a time to keep load times short, but you can go back through every text conversation you’ve had as long as you haven’t previously erased the messages. Going to the beginning of a particularly long chat can take time but requires only the touch of a finger.

Step 1

Open the conversation you’d like to read in your iPhone’s “Messages” app.

Step 2

Touch the top of the screen, where the time is displayed, to scroll to the top of the conversation display.

Step 3

Touch “Load Earlier Messages” to see messages that aren’t currently shown.

Step 4

Scroll to the top of the older messages and use the “Load Earlier Messages” button again. Repeat these steps to go all the way back to the beginning of the conversation.

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