diff --git a/Tusker/Extensions/StatusStateResolver.swift b/Tusker/Extensions/StatusStateResolver.swift
index a51d0bb5..34f8bd8a 100644
--- a/Tusker/Extensions/StatusStateResolver.swift
+++ b/Tusker/Extensions/StatusStateResolver.swift
@@ -11,10 +11,10 @@ import Pachyderm
 
 extension StatusState {
     
-    func resolveFor(status: StatusMO, height: CGFloat) {
+    func resolveFor(status: StatusMO, height: CGFloat, textLength: Int? = nil) {
         let longEnoughToCollapse: Bool
         if Preferences.shared.collapseLongPosts,
-           height > 500 {
+           height > 500 || (textLength != nil && textLength! > 500) {
             longEnoughToCollapse = true
         } else {
             longEnoughToCollapse = false
diff --git a/Tusker/Views/Status/BaseStatusTableViewCell.swift b/Tusker/Views/Status/BaseStatusTableViewCell.swift
index a314ce89..c85c82b9 100644
--- a/Tusker/Views/Status/BaseStatusTableViewCell.swift
+++ b/Tusker/Views/Status/BaseStatusTableViewCell.swift
@@ -182,8 +182,8 @@ class BaseStatusTableViewCell: UITableViewCell {
         updateStatusIconsForPreferences(status)
 
         if state.unknown {
-            layoutIfNeeded()
-            state.resolveFor(status: status, height: contentTextView.bounds.height)
+            // for some reason the height here can't be computed correctly, so we fallback to the old hack of just considering raw length
+            state.resolveFor(status: status, height: 0, textLength: contentTextView.attributedText.length)
             if state.collapsible! && showStatusAutomatically {
                 state.collapsed = false
             }