diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9cd3d350e..3a1228571 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@
   this affects `dc_get_chat_contacts()`, `dc_get_contacts()` and `dc_get_blocked_contacts()` #3562
 - add `internet_access` flag to `dc_msg_get_webxdc_info()` #3516
 - `DC_EVENT_WEBXDC_INSTANCE_DELETED` is emitted when a message containing a webxdc gets deleted #3105
+- truncate incoming messages by lines instead of just length #3480
 
 ### Fixes
 - do not emit notifications for blocked chats #3557
diff --git a/src/constants.rs b/src/constants.rs
index 3730521ef..bbdad67f7 100644
--- a/src/constants.rs
+++ b/src/constants.rs
@@ -167,6 +167,11 @@ pub const DC_MSG_ID_LAST_SPECIAL: u32 = 9;
 
 /// String that indicates that something is left out or truncated.
 pub const DC_ELLIPSIS: &str = "[...]";
+// how many lines desktop can display when fullscreen (fullscreen at zoomlevel 1x)
+// (taken from "subjective" testing what looks ok)
+pub const DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LINES: usize = 38;
+// how many chars desktop can display per line (from "subjective" testing)
+pub const DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LINE_LEN: usize = 100;
 
 /// Message length limit.
 ///
@@ -176,7 +181,7 @@ pub const DC_ELLIPSIS: &str = "[...]";
 ///
 /// Note that for simplicity maximum length is defined as the number of Unicode Scalar Values (Rust
 /// `char`s), not Unicode Grapheme Clusters.
-pub const DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LEN: usize = 5000;
+pub const DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LEN: usize = DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LINE_LEN * DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LINES;
 
 // Flags for empty server job
 
diff --git a/src/mimeparser.rs b/src/mimeparser.rs
index 142fa0ed6..877608769 100644
--- a/src/mimeparser.rs
+++ b/src/mimeparser.rs
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ use once_cell::sync::Lazy;
 
 use crate::aheader::Aheader;
 use crate::blob::BlobObject;
-use crate::constants::{DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LEN, DC_ELLIPSIS};
+use crate::constants::{DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LINES, DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LINE_LEN};
 use crate::contact::{addr_cmp, addr_normalize, ContactId};
 use crate::context::Context;
 use crate::decrypt::{create_decryption_info, try_decrypt};
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ use crate::peerstate::Peerstate;
 use crate::simplify::{simplify, SimplifiedText};
 use crate::stock_str;
 use crate::sync::SyncItems;
-use crate::tools::{get_filemeta, parse_receive_headers, truncate};
+use crate::tools::{get_filemeta, parse_receive_headers, truncate_by_lines};
 
 /// A parsed MIME message.
 ///
@@ -1012,14 +1012,15 @@ impl MimeMessage {
                             (simplified_txt, top_quote)
                         };
 
-                        let simplified_txt = if simplified_txt.chars().count()
-                            > DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LEN + DC_ELLIPSIS.len()
-                        {
-                            self.is_mime_modified = true;
-                            truncate(&*simplified_txt, DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LEN).to_string()
-                        } else {
-                            simplified_txt
-                        };
+                        // Truncate text if it has too many lines
+                        let (simplified_txt, was_truncated) = truncate_by_lines(
+                            simplified_txt,
+                            DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LINES,
+                            DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LINE_LEN,
+                        );
+                        if was_truncated {
+                            self.is_mime_modified = was_truncated;
+                        }
 
                         if !simplified_txt.is_empty() || simplified_quote.is_some() {
                             let mut part = Part {
@@ -1817,7 +1818,7 @@ mod tests {
     use crate::{
         chatlist::Chatlist,
         config::Config,
-        constants::Blocked,
+        constants::{Blocked, DC_DESIRED_TEXT_LEN, DC_ELLIPSIS},
         message::{Message, MessageState, MessengerMessage},
         receive_imf::receive_imf,
         test_utils::TestContext,
diff --git a/src/tools.rs b/src/tools.rs
index 5b953f9bb..f511c9370 100644
--- a/src/tools.rs
+++ b/src/tools.rs
@@ -49,6 +49,65 @@ pub(crate) fn truncate(buf: &str, approx_chars: usize) -> Cow<str> {
     }
 }
 
+/// Shortens a string to a specified line count and adds "[...]" to the
+/// end of the shortened string.
+///
+/// returns tuple with the String and a boolean whether is was truncated
+pub(crate) fn truncate_by_lines(
+    buf: String,
+    max_lines: usize,
+    max_line_len: usize,
+) -> (String, bool) {
+    let mut lines = 0;
+    let mut line_chars = 0;
+    let mut break_point: Option<usize> = None;
+
+    for (index, char) in buf.char_indices() {
+        if char == '\n' {
+            line_chars = 0;
+            lines += 1;
+        } else {
+            line_chars += 1;
+            if line_chars > max_line_len {
+                line_chars = 1;
+                lines += 1;
+            }
+        }
+        if lines == max_lines {
+            break_point = Some(index);
+            break;
+        }
+    }
+
+    if let Some(end_pos) = break_point {
+        // Text has too many lines and needs to be truncated.
+        let text = {
+            if let Some(buffer) = buf.get(..end_pos) {
+                if let Some(index) = buffer.rfind(|c| c == ' ' || c == '\n') {
+                    buf.get(..=index)
+                } else {
+                    buf.get(..end_pos)
+                }
+            } else {
+                None
+            }
+        };
+
+        if let Some(truncated_text) = text {
+            (format!("{}{}", truncated_text, DC_ELLIPSIS), true)
+        } else {
+            // In case of indexing/slicing error, we return an error
+            // message as a preview and add HTML version. This should
+            // never happen.
+            let error_text = "[Truncation of the message failed, this is a bug in the Delta Chat core. Please report it.\nYou can still open the full text to view the original message.]";
+            (error_text.to_string(), true)
+        }
+    } else {
+        // text is unchanged
+        (buf, false)
+    }
+}
+
 /* ******************************************************************************
  * date/time tools
  ******************************************************************************/
@@ -744,6 +803,79 @@ Hop: From: hq5.example.org; By: hq5.example.org; Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2021 11:21:22
         );
     }
 
+    mod truncate_by_lines {
+        use super::*;
+
+        #[test]
+        fn test_just_text() {
+            let s = "this is a little test string".to_string();
+            assert_eq!(
+                truncate_by_lines(s, 4, 6),
+                ("this is a little test [...]".to_string(), true)
+            );
+        }
+
+        #[test]
+        fn test_with_linebreaks() {
+            let s = "this\n is\n a little test string".to_string();
+            assert_eq!(
+                truncate_by_lines(s, 4, 6),
+                ("this\n is\n a little [...]".to_string(), true)
+            );
+        }
+
+        #[test]
+        fn test_only_linebreaks() {
+            let s = "\n\n\n\n\n\n\n".to_string();
+            assert_eq!(
+                truncate_by_lines(s, 4, 5),
+                ("\n\n\n[...]".to_string(), true)
+            );
+        }
+
+        #[test]
+        fn limit_hits_end() {
+            let s = "hello\n world !".to_string();
+            assert_eq!(
+                truncate_by_lines(s, 2, 8),
+                ("hello\n world !".to_string(), false)
+            );
+        }
+
+        #[test]
+        fn test_edge() {
+            assert_eq!(
+                truncate_by_lines("".to_string(), 2, 4),
+                ("".to_string(), false)
+            );
+
+            assert_eq!(
+                truncate_by_lines("\n  hello \n world".to_string(), 2, 4),
+                ("\n  [...]".to_string(), true)
+            );
+            assert_eq!(
+                truncate_by_lines("𐠈0Aᝮa𫝀®!ꫛa¡0A𐢧00𐹠®A  丽ⷐએ".to_string(), 1, 2),
+                ("𐠈0[...]".to_string(), true)
+            );
+            assert_eq!(
+                truncate_by_lines("𐠈0Aᝮa𫝀®!ꫛa¡0A𐢧00𐹠®A  丽ⷐએ".to_string(), 1, 0),
+                ("[...]".to_string(), true)
+            );
+
+            // 9 characters, so no truncation
+            assert_eq!(
+                truncate_by_lines("𑒀ὐ￠🜀\u{1e01b}A a🟠".to_string(), 1, 12),
+                ("𑒀ὐ￠🜀\u{1e01b}A a🟠".to_string(), false),
+            );
+
+            // 12 characters, truncation
+            assert_eq!(
+                truncate_by_lines("𑒀ὐ￠🜀\u{1e01b}A a🟠bcd".to_string(), 1, 7),
+                ("𑒀ὐ￠🜀\u{1e01b}A [...]".to_string(), true),
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn test_create_id() {
         let buf = create_id();