There are a number of reasons why you might want to find out the first message of a conversation that you’ve had on Facebook Messenger.
Maybe you’re trying to find the first messages exchanged between you and your partners.
Or, maybe the first message on a certain message thread contains important information, such as an address or online banking details.
Either way, it would certainly be handy if you could find out this information without having to endlessly scroll.
The question is, does Facebook make this task easy for you – and if it doesn’t, is there a third party app which will do it for you?
If you’re hoping to skip straight through to the first message of a conversation then you’ve come to the right place. Let’s get started.
How to see first message on Facebook Messenger without scrolling – via Facebook
The easiest way to locate the first message on a particular message thread on Facebook Messenger is if you have a rough idea on what the topic of conversation was when the chat first started.
This is because Facebook has functionality for each Messenger conversation which allows users to jump to certain parts of the chat based on a keyword search.
Of course, searching for words such as ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ are likely to bring up hundreds of results so it’s important to try and remember a certain topic that was discussed during the open exchanges of the chat.
If your are looking for something important such as an address, for example, then this method should work a charm.
In order to use this method, please follow these instructions:
- Log on to your Facebook account via a web browser.
- Select the messenger icon on the top right hand side of the screen and click ‘see all in messenger’.
- Select on the conversation you want to look into.
- Select ‘customise chat’ and then ‘search in conversation’ from the drop down list.
- From here, enter in the terms you want to search for and then use the arrows to jump to each instance of that term in the entire conversation.
- Hopefully, this will take you to the first message of the conversation or near enough to the top that the remaining scrolls won’t be too time consuming.
Using the search bar is the easiest way to find a message on Facebook Messenger without scrolling through the chat, but it requires you to enter specific words from those older messages.
If you can’t remember any topics of conversation from the start of your conversation then there are some other options available to you.
Let’s take a look at ways to can search for your first conversation in your Messenger chat.
Download your Facebook data – See older messages fast
The best way to obtain a digital copy of all of your Facebook messages, including the first messages exchanged within each and every conversation you’ve had on Messenger, is to simply download all of your Facebook data.
You are able to do this directly via Facebook, meaning you can complete the process without the risk of downloading something harmful on to your device.
When selecting this option on the platform, Facebook will automatically assume that you want ALL of your Facebook data.
If you elect to download all of your data then the process will take quite a long time to complete.
However, Facebook will allow you make some adjustments pre-download so that it is only messages that are downloaded.
In order to download your Facebook message data, please follow these instructions:
- Log on to your Facebook account via a web browser.
- Select the downwards arrow on the top right hand side of the screen and select ‘settings and privacy’, followed by ‘settings’.
- Select ‘Your Facebook information’ from the tab on the left hand side.
- Select ‘Download your information’.
- Select the date range in which you want data from.
- Untick all the boxes except ‘Messages’ and then select ‘request a download’.
- Wait for the download to complete – this can take a while so don’t expect your data to instantly appear.
When you have the data downloaded, you can then look back and find a specific message on Facebook Messenger without scrolling through.
You can also consider downloading an app to help you see old messages on Facebook Messenger without scrolling too.
Download a third party app – See the first message
If you are an Android user, then you have one additional option available to you that will allow you to go to the beginning of a conversation on Messenger.
Google Play Store currently has a free app available called “Easy scroll”, which automatically scrolls pages and apps for you so you don’t have to.
This will scroll back to the first message in your Messenger chat quickly.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, all you need to do is go on to Facebook Messenger on your Android device, grant access to ‘Easy scroll’ and let the app do all the scrolling for you.
You could put your phone down, go and make a cup of tea and by the time you’re back, ‘Easy scroll” should have navigated to the top of your messages for you. It really is as simple as that.
There are various different third party apps that allow you to find an old message on Facebook Messenger without scrolling, so it can be worth browsing through the Google Play store to see what’s available.
Conclusion
To conclude, finding the first message on a Messenger or Messenger Lite thread could be made easier by Facebook by having a “scroll to the top of thread” button.
However, while they don’t have that functionality, we have to make do with the tools they have given us – the best of which have been discussed in this article.
We hope that our advice above will help you to get to the top of your messenger threads in no time.