How to stop messages from opening when I touch the icon

When I only have one unread message (or all from the same person), it opens that thread when I open the Messages app. I don't want the thread to open automatically when I touch the message icon, and would rather it opens the list of message threads. What can I do to stop this automatic action of opening the thread?

Solution 1:

Silly answer: don't touch it. Sensible answer: presume you are not wanting to send read receipts until you are ready? If so, note that it should return you to the same view you left it in, so to avoid this have a new conversation to a blank sender and select this conversation before minimising/quitting.

Solution 2:

They seem to have changed this behavior in ios 7. It now goes directly to the list of messages rather than the latest new message.