Quick navigation of message conversation history

A mobile device, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a display that supports a user interface (UI) configured to enable a user of the mobile device to interact with the UI using gestures;
• and
• a memory storing computer-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the mobile device to:
• present a chat card on the UI using a horizontally scrollable display of chat cards, each chat card showing a messaging conversation between a mobile device user and one or more contacts,
• present a horizontally scrollable carousel of contacts, the contacts being sorted in the carousel according to their messaging conversation histories,
• show a highlight to indicate a contact in the carousel that is associated with a currently displayed chat card on the UI,
• enable a user to scroll among chat cards, a scrolling order of the chat cards corresponding to the sort order of the contacts in the carousel;
• enable the user to remove a contact from the carousel, and update the sort order responsively to the removal;
• provide a control for the user to switch the UI to a list view of contacts and enable the user to switch from the list view to a minimized view that includes the carousel;
• responsively to user scrolling of the chat cards, update the highlighted contact in the carousel to indicate a contact associated with the currently displayed chat card on the UI,
• receive an input representing a user selection of a contact from the carousel,
• change the highlight to indicate the user selected contact, and
• present a corresponding chat card to the user selected contact on the UI.

One or more computer-readable memories storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors disposed in a mobile device, cause the mobile device to:

• expose a user interface (UI) that is responsive to gestures of a user of the mobile device;
• upon launch of a messaging application, display a chat card showing a messaging conversation that includes a most recent message on the UI;
• display a carousel of contacts with the chat card, the carousel showing contacts in a sorted order according to message history;
• indicate a contact in the carousel that is associated with the displayed chat card;
• enable the user to select a contact in the carousel;
• enable the user to remove a contact from the carousel, and update the sort order responsively to the removal;
• provide a control for the user to switch the UI to a list view of contacts and enable the user to switch from the list view to a minimized view that includes the carousel;
• and
• swap chat cards so as to display a chat card that matches the user-selected contact from the carousel.