diff --git a/native/chat/chat-input-bar.react.js b/native/chat/chat-input-bar.react.js
--- a/native/chat/chat-input-bar.react.js
+++ b/native/chat/chat-input-bar.react.js
@@ -198,6 +198,7 @@
   // We set it to null, when new selection is set.
   androidPreviousText: ?string;
   iosPreviousSelection: ?Selection;
+  iosDelayedSelectionTimeout: ?TimeoutID;
 
   constructor(props: Props) {
     super(props);
@@ -213,6 +214,7 @@
     this.setUpSendIconAnimations();
     this.androidPreviousText = null;
     this.iosPreviousSelection = null;
+    this.iosDelayedSelectionTimeout = null;
   }
 
   setUpActionIconAnimations() {
@@ -687,23 +689,66 @@
     });
   }, 400);
 
-  focusAndUpdateText = (text: string) => {
-    const { textInput } = this;
-    if (!textInput) {
-      return;
-    }
+  focusAndUpdateTextAndSelection = (text: string, selection: Selection) => {
+    // On iOS, the update of text below will trigger a selection change which
+    // will overwrite our update of selection.
+    // To address this, we schedule the second update of selection
+    // after waiting for 100ms.
+    // We tried waiting for the animation frame to flush,
+    // but it turned out to be unreliable and nondeterministic.
+    this.setState(
+      {
+        text,
+        textEdited: true,
+        selection,
+        controlSelection: true,
+      },
+      () => {
+        this.refreshIOSSelection(selection);
+      },
+    );
+    this.saveDraft(text);
 
+    this.focusAndUpdateButtonsVisibility();
+  };
+
+  focusAndUpdateText = (text: string) => {
     const currentText = this.state.text;
     if (!currentText.startsWith(text)) {
       const prependedText = text.concat(currentText);
       this.updateText(prependedText);
-      this.immediatelyShowSendButton();
-      this.immediatelyHideButtons();
     }
 
+    this.focusAndUpdateButtonsVisibility();
+  };
+
+  focusAndUpdateButtonsVisibility = () => {
+    const { textInput } = this;
+    if (!textInput) {
+      return;
+    }
+
+    this.immediatelyShowSendButton();
+    this.immediatelyHideButtons();
     textInput.focus();
   };
 
+  refreshIOSSelection = (selection: Selection) => {
+    if (Platform.OS !== 'ios') {
+      return;
+    }
+
+    if (this.iosDelayedSelectionTimeout) {
+      clearTimeout(this.iosDelayedSelectionTimeout);
+    }
+    this.iosDelayedSelectionTimeout = setTimeout(() => {
+      this.setState({
+        selection,
+        controlSelection: true,
+      });
+    }, 100);
+  };
+
   onSend = async () => {
     if (!trimMessage(this.state.text)) {
       return;