Many chat apps have prominent “reply” or “reply in thread” buttons. These
buttons are necessary, because it's often hard to figure out what conversation
messages belong to if you don't use them.

When you [start composing](/help/replying-to-messages) a message in Zulip, it
will automatically be addressed to the conversation thread you're reading
(unless you are [starting a new
thread](/help/introduction-to-topics#how-to-start-a-new-topic)). Because
everything is organized into threads, it'll almost always be clear what you're
responding to. This means there is no need to repeat what has already been said
when you reply.

You can still [quote](/help/quote-or-forward-a-message#quote-a-message) part of
an older message for reference, or
[forward](/help/quote-or-forward-a-message#forward-a-message) a message to
another thread.