diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/Config.java b/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/Config.java
index c73da59e309f139b3cc80c28b839421d5cae25ff..c4fe28d9821115201f33aedbce3c2071c1636c08 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/Config.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/Config.java
@@ -76,6 +76,8 @@ public final class Config {
 
 	public static final int REFRESH_UI_INTERVAL = 500;
 
+	public static final int MAX_DISPLAY_MESSAGE_CHARS = 5 * 1024;
+
 	public static final boolean DISABLE_PROXY_LOOKUP = false; //useful to debug ibb
 	public static final boolean DISABLE_HTTP_UPLOAD = false;
 	public static final boolean DISABLE_STRING_PREP = false; // setting to true might increase startup performance
diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/ui/adapter/MessageAdapter.java b/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/ui/adapter/MessageAdapter.java
index 74bfb491a531bd70494aeac81c46d9263e6ed7ba..32646a92dd96847b434d960c65ea7203172b0f7e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/ui/adapter/MessageAdapter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/siacs/conversations/ui/adapter/MessageAdapter.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import android.text.style.RelativeSizeSpan;
 import android.text.style.StyleSpan;
 import android.text.util.Linkify;
 import android.util.DisplayMetrics;
+import android.util.Log;
 import android.util.Patterns;
 import android.view.View;
 import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
@@ -39,6 +40,7 @@ import java.util.regex.MatchResult;
 import java.util.regex.Matcher;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
+import eu.siacs.conversations.Config;
 import eu.siacs.conversations.R;
 import eu.siacs.conversations.crypto.axolotl.XmppAxolotlSession;
 import eu.siacs.conversations.entities.Account;
@@ -308,6 +310,10 @@ public class MessageAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<Message> {
 			} catch (ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
 				body = message.getMergedBody();
 			}
+			if (body.length() > Config.MAX_DISPLAY_MESSAGE_CHARS) {
+				Log.d(Config.LOGTAG,"not showing complete message of length "+body.length());
+				body = body.substring(0, Config.MAX_DISPLAY_MESSAGE_CHARS);
+			}
 			final SpannableString formattedBody = new SpannableString(body);
 			int i = body.indexOf(Message.MERGE_SEPARATOR);
 			while(i >= 0) {
diff --git a/src/main/res/layout/message_received.xml b/src/main/res/layout/message_received.xml
index e720a6ff25ca06d15b3f3763a7103c74b4113e91..466dd045ad2bb8dbe457e9bf3dd9472d6ceedc68 100644
--- a/src/main/res/layout/message_received.xml
+++ b/src/main/res/layout/message_received.xml
@@ -53,7 +53,6 @@
                 android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                 android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                 android:autoLink="web"
-                android:maxLines="256"
                 android:textColorLink="@color/white"
                 android:textColor="@color/white"
                 android:textColorHighlight="@color/grey800"
diff --git a/src/main/res/layout/message_sent.xml b/src/main/res/layout/message_sent.xml
index be530c5fe3384e3b8d8f03e756e772ce73389d9c..fc68c389464ed7b07b36569e491e9ebde89177a1 100644
--- a/src/main/res/layout/message_sent.xml
+++ b/src/main/res/layout/message_sent.xml
@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@
                 android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                 android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                 android:autoLink="web"
-                android:maxLines="256"
                 android:textColorLink="@color/black87"
                 android:textColor="@color/black87"
                 android:textColorHighlight="@color/grey500"