Reply to one particular message
Pin your answer to the question it answers, so nobody in a busy group has to guess.
Four questions have gone past in ten minutes. You answer the second one, and your answer lands underneath the fourth. Everybody is now confused, including you.
The fix is a button called Reply, and it exists in every message app there is. It takes the message you are answering and quotes it in a little box above your words, so the two travel together.
You get to it by holding your finger on the message for about a second. That gesture is the one nobody is ever taught, and it opens a small menu on every phone made.
Key points
- Hold your finger on a message to open the menu nobody shows you
- Pin an answer to the question it answers, so nobody has to guess
- Put a thumb on a message instead of adding to the noise
- Take a reaction off again without anybody being told
What to remember
- Hold a message, press Reply, write, send. Four steps in every message app there is.
- Reply is about clarity, not privacy. For privacy, open that person’s own conversation instead.
- A reaction is the quietest way to say “seen, thank you”. In a busy family it is worth more than words.
Try this
Open any conversation and hold your finger on one of your own old messages for a second. Look at the menu that appears, then press somewhere else to close it. That menu is where half of a message app lives.
Practice: Reply to one particular message. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.