diff --git a/webui-src/app/chat/chat.js b/webui-src/app/chat/chat.js
index 8b2ade7..15319a5 100644
--- a/webui-src/app/chat/chat.js
+++ b/webui-src/app/chat/chat.js
@@ -110,6 +110,24 @@ function scrollChatToBottom() {
   }, 50);
 }
 
+//  Whether the conversation is still pinned to its last message. It starts
+//  pinned, follows the user's own scrolling, and decides whether a redraw is
+//  allowed to jump back down -- without it, reading anything older is
+//  impossible: the pane redraws on every event and every poll answer, and each
+//  one dragged the reader back to the bottom a few tens of milliseconds later.
+let chatStickToBottom = true;
+
+//  A little slack, because a reader who stops one line short of the end still
+//  means "keep following", and because scrollTop is fractional on zoomed or
+//  high-density displays.
+const CHAT_STICK_SLACK_PX = 80;
+
+function updateChatStickToBottom(element) {
+  if (!element) return;
+  chatStickToBottom =
+    element.scrollHeight - element.scrollTop - element.clientHeight <= CHAT_STICK_SLACK_PX;
+}
+
 function renderUserTooltip(gxsId, name) {
   const details = ChatHubState.gxsDetails[gxsId];
   if (!details) return null;
@@ -359,8 +377,20 @@ const ChatConversationView = () => {
           m(
             '.chat-hub-messages' + (isRoom ? '.compact-container' : ''),
             {
-              oncreate: () => scrollChatToBottom(),
-              onupdate: () => scrollChatToBottom(),
+              oncreate: () => {
+                chatStickToBottom = true;
+                scrollChatToBottom();
+              },
+              onupdate: () => {
+                if (chatStickToBottom) scrollChatToBottom();
+              },
+              onscroll: (event) => {
+                //  A scroll must not trigger a redraw: mithril redraws after
+                //  every handler by default, and this one fires continuously
+                //  while the reader drags the pane.
+                event.redraw = false;
+                updateChatStickToBottom(event.target);
+              },
             },
             ChatLobbyModel.messages
           ),
@@ -1220,6 +1250,10 @@ const Layout = {
     if (lobbyId && ChatHubState.selectedRoomId !== lobbyId) {
       ChatHubState.mobilePane = 'detail';
       ChatHubState.selectedRoomId = lobbyId;
+      //  Another room, another conversation: it opens on its last message,
+      //  whatever the reader had scrolled to in the previous one. The pane
+      //  itself is reused rather than recreated, so its oncreate does not run.
+      chatStickToBottom = true;
       ChatLobbyModel.loadLobby(lobbyId);
     } else if (!lobbyId) {
       ChatHubState.mobilePane = 'list';
diff --git a/webui-src/app/main.js b/webui-src/app/main.js
index 5240d06..3b88edc 100644
--- a/webui-src/app/main.js
+++ b/webui-src/app/main.js
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ const navbar = () => {
                       ? 'Connected to RetroShare Core'
                       : 'Connection Lost',
                   }),
-                  m('span.webui-version', { style: { fontSize: '0.7em' } }, 'v153'),
+                  m('span.webui-version', { style: { fontSize: '0.7em' } }, 'v156'),
                   m('i.fas.fa-sync-alt.refresh-icon', {
                     style: { cursor: 'pointer', fontSize: '0.8em' },
                     onclick: () => window.location.reload(true),
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ const MobileStatus = () => {
               m('small', statusbar.formatBytes(state.totalOut)),
             ]),
           ]),
-          m('.mobile-status-sheet__version', 'WebUI v153'),
+          m('.mobile-status-sheet__version', 'WebUI v156'),
         ])),
       ];
     },