Here are two simple ways to quickly get to the message you want in iOS.

How to See Old Messages on an iPhone With the Hidden Scroll

Scrolling can become tiresome after a few vertical swipes along the screen. A faster navigation method is to tap at the top of the screen and let it instantly scroll a few messages at a time.

Open the Messages app in iOS and select the conversation you want to view. Tap once near the clock (or on either side of the camera notch) at the top of your iPhone or iPad screen. A progress indicator appears as the app scrolls up a few messages at a time. Keep tapping on the spot to quickly scan through the history of old messages till you find what you’re looking for or scroll to the top of iMessage.

It’ll take a lot of tapping on the top of the iMessage screen to take you back to the beginning of the message thread. But it’s more comfortable than swiping to scroll, which gets frustrating quickly.

Tip: This method works on every app on iOS.

But is there a faster way to find an old message on your iPhone that doesn’t involve scrolling?

You can see old messages on your iPhone if you remember any words someone used. This is the fastest way to scroll to the top or anywhere and can give your fingers some rest.

Go to the Messages app. Find the Search bar on the main screen with all the conversation threads. You may need to drag down from the middle of the screen to make it appear. Type the words you remember in the search bar, or use your voice with a tap on the mic. The relevant conversations appear chronologically, with the newest messages on top. The words you searched appear highlighted within them. Go through the results and tap to open the one you’re looking for.

This method only works if you remember part of the original message. So try a few variations of different search terms. If this fails, you’ll have to fall back on the cumbersome scrolling method.

Find Old Text Messages on Your iPhone Anytime

Also, you can only find an old message if you haven’t deleted it from the Messages app already. If you have, you need to look into the different ways to recover deleted text messages on your iPhone instead, like your iCloud backup.