Unable to exit Reply screen in Messages on iPhone

I am having the same problem described in a now-inactive conversation from January 2021 shown at the link below; when I reply to an individual message in a thread, my phone (iPhone SE) gets stuck on the window that shows the message to which I replied and my reply. Tapping on the screen anywhere including on the name of the person I am conversing with does nothing. I have to restart or reboot my phone to get back to Messages and the original conversation. Over 200 people indicated that they were having the same problem, but no satisfactory answer was provided as to what to do in that situation. Last night the person I was communicating with was having the same problem during our conversation! Does anyone have a suggestion about what is going wrong and how to deal with it quickly and effectively?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252310627