How to find old messages in Facebook Messenger

Although there are many chat apps, Facebook Messenger can still be one of the most popular and full of different and interesting features. The only problem is that it can be a little difficult to find old messages using just your search engine, which is usually pretty flawed and doesn't show the desired results. Fortunately, there is a very simple way to find these old messages in your browser. To find out how, just check out our tips below!

Old messages in Facebook Messenger

There is no official way to find the first messages you sent or received from a contact in Facebook Messenger, unless you remember a very specific word from these messages and can find them using the app's search engine.

Since this is not the case for most people, you can simply take advantage of a very simple Facebook Messenger trick to achieve the desired result. To do this, you need to open both your regular Facebook profile and the mobile version of Facebook Messenger in your browser (just click here to access it).

You will notice that accessing the mobile version of Facebook in the browser does not bring one of the most beautiful looks on the social network, but it is to be expected from something simpler for smartphones. However, being logged in to Facebook, you should see your contact and message window.

To continue, choose one of these conversations and click it. Preferably choose the one you want to see the oldest messages. Then go to your regular Facebook page and open your message box, where you should click on the same conversation you selected in the mobile version of Messenger.

Scroll up as if you want to see some of the previous conversations in that chat. You will notice that Facebook will display a warning saying “Upload old messages” and next to it will be a number, as shown in the image below:

This number represents the approximate number of messages you have exchanged with that person and is something you should note for the next steps. Now, go back to the mobile version of Facebook and click "View Older Messages" in the chat window you previously chose.

This will cause the URL to change slightly in your browser's address bar, which should now be much longer than before. In this URL you need to look for the following part: “& start =”

As you can see, there is a number after the "=" in this part of the URL, which represents what messages Facebook Messenger is currently showing you. The smaller the number, the more recent the messages displayed in chat.

You should delete this number and everything that comes after it in the URL, leaving only until "& start =". Now enter the number of messages you have already exchanged with that person after the "=", which is the large number that appeared next to "Load old messages" earlier.

Click “Enter” or refresh the page and Facebook will automatically show you the oldest messages from that chat. Since that number does not exactly represent the total number of messages exchanged, you can slowly increase the number (only a few dozen should work) to see the first message sent or received with that contact.

Very interesting, isn't it ?! It may seem a bit laborious the first time, but knowing this procedure, you can do it whenever you want and with anyone you have ever talked to on Facebook.

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