ios app issues with photos

Whenever i send a photo the app hides everything in the chat except the photo i sent, or sometimes just shows a progress bar, no matter what server I go to. I have to force close and reopen the app in between every photo I send. it won’t go back to normal otherwise no matter how long I wait. occasionally this happens when I receive a photo or when I send text, but it always happens when I send a photo. iphone 6 UTD on updates, but this has persisted through a couple of app updates