The messaging redesign

Messaging isn't read like an article: it's used like an app. The thread has to fit the screen, the input stays under your thumb, and scrolling must never wander off to somewhere you didn't ask for. That's the work we've just done, screen by screen.

On phones, the conversation takes the whole screen

When you open a conversation, it now fills the entire screen. No more site bar at the top and navigation bar at the bottom eating a good sixth of the height: the conversation header becomes the top bar, and the arrow in the top left brings you back to your conversations.

Every messaging app you already use does this, and for good reason: on a phone, every line of messages you gain counts.

On tablets, two panes instead of one

On iPads and Android tablets, your conversations stay visible on the left while you write on the right. We first tried full screen there too, and it was the wrong call. On a screen that size, it removed the whole site navigation to show a single conversation surrounded by empty space.

A tablet has room for both. You move from one conversation to the next without ever losing your list.

One scroll, and it no longer jumps

This was the most irritating part: scrolling back through your history could make the whole page shift behind the thread, or bounce when you reached the top. That's over. There is now only one scroll, the messages one, and it stops cleanly at both ends.

The Back to bottom button no longer shifts anything when it appears, and it's finally clickable on the first try.

Press and hold a message

On phones, hold your finger on a message: a menu slides up from the bottom with Reply, Copy, and Report for other people's messages. You can dismiss it by sliding it back down.

Before, three little dots sat permanently next to every bubble, for lack of hover on mobile. That was noise down the whole height of the conversation. On desktop, they still appear when you hover a bubble, as before.

Messages that read better

• Your bubbles are now ink, a deep brown instead of the orange gradient. Received messages sit on the site's light paper instead of a grey that blended into the background. Both sides finally read equally well, and orange goes back to being what it should be: a signal, not a background colour.
• Timestamps are clearer and line up neatly under one another.
• The conversation list has been decluttered: separators tuck under the text, and unread conversations stand out at a glance.
• The input area now grows to five lines on phones and seven on desktop before scrolling, instead of four everywhere.

And under the hood

A lot of this work doesn't show, which is exactly the point: the conversation no longer shifts when a site-wide banner appears at the top, the last message no longer slips under the iPhone home bar, and typing a long message no longer makes the thread jump.

If something looks off on your device, write to us. This update owes a great deal to screenshots sent at the right moment. 🧩