Originally Posted by
Charles Votaw The answer from qbnkelt works great if the trash can appears, but I haven't figured out how to reliably get it to appear. If I play with it long enough I usually get it to happen, but there must be a better way.
If it doesn't appear, try deleting the messages app from the background apps. Then try again. Sometimes I can get the trash can and forward arrow to show by pulling down hard on the keyboard. That's kind of tricky. That bar at the bottom won't move. If you use 3rd party keyboards, deleting them may help. This is a bug among several that Apple sees as not too important. But the messages bugs are on their list. Maybe this Spring when the Watch is released.
Sent from my ancient but trustworthy iPhone 5