Search chat history

[ParagJain]

I am trying to search for a message in my history (phone number); I can find it using the spotlight feature on the iphone. but the message is more than a month old and when I try to access that message, it opens chat app, and loads the most current messages. I need to scroll up and load earlier messages to get what i am trying to search.

can't i directly open that message from spotlight?

 

[iCallum]

Unfortunately I believe scrolling to the message is the only option.

 

[C DM]

Unfortunately I believe scrolling to the message is the only option.

I believe this has been changed in iOS 7 where it will take you to the actual message in question...so I guess at least that's something.

 

[Tyler23]

I believe this has been changed in iOS 7 where it will take you to the actual message in question...so I guess at least that's something.

It does not take you to the message in question in iOS 7. Still a missing feature.

 

[C DM]

It does not take you to the message in question in iOS 7. Still a missing feature.

Seems to take me right to the specific message when I do a search (and seemed like that was the case based on what some people posted in some iOS 7 threads).

 

[Tyler23]

Seems to take me right to the specific message when I do a search (and seemed like that was the case based on what some people posted in some iOS 7 threads).

It seems to be able to go back to things I search for that were sent today, but anything before today, it will just go to the most recent text like it always used to.

 

[C DM]

It seems to be able to go back to things I search for that were sent today, but anything before today, it will just go to the most recent text like it always used to.

Works for me for things even from a few days ago and even weeks ago. Now, perhaps it might be that way for recent things that appear in a conversation by default when it's loaded (no matter how old they are, basically just depending on how many messages you have in that conversation), before you have to use "Load Earlier Messages"--haven't tested that particular case.

 

[Tyler23]

Works for me for things even from a few days ago and even weeks ago. Now, perhaps it might be that way for recent things that appear in a conversation by default when it's loaded (no matter how old they are, basically just depending on how many messages you have in that conversation), before you have to use "Load Earlier Messages"--haven't tested that particular case.

Basically, if I try to search for anything in my fiancee and my message history (which is two years long), it will not go to any message that was sent/received prior to today. If I search for something in a message from yesterday, or any time before that, it will just open up our message thread to the most recent message, as it has in every previous version of iOS.

Maybe it's just a case-by-case deal as of now, buggy for some and not for others?

 

[C DM]

Basically, if I try to search for anything in my fiancee and my message history (which is two years long), it will not go to any message that was sent/received prior to today. If I search for something in a message from yesterday, or any time before that, it will just open up our message thread to the most recent message, as it has in every previous version of iOS.

Maybe it's just a case-by-case deal as of now, buggy for some and not for others?

Could be case by case, or buggy, or perhaps not fully implemented yet in the beta phase. For now it seems like it might be limited to what's loaded in the message view initially before you use "Load More Messages". So if you have a lot of messages just from today with a particular contact, then those will probably be the only ones appearing before you have to use "Load More Messages" to get more messages. But, if you don't have that many--like I have some where I have a couple of messages with someone from yesterday, then a few more from 3 days ago, then one or two from a few weeks ago--those show up even before you have to use "Load More Messages", and those seem to be directly accessible from a search.

It seems like they've improved this in iOS 7, although perhaps to a limited degree. Perhaps they'll expand in the future, or perhaps this will be it (which I guess is still somewhat more than before).

 

[Tyler23]

Could be case by case, or buggy, or perhaps not fully implemented yet in the beta phase. For now it seems like it might be limited to what's loaded in the message view initially before you use "Load More Messages". So if you have a lot of messages just from today with a particular contact, then those will probably be the only ones appearing before you have to use "Load More Messages" to get more messages. But, if you don't have that many--like I have some where I have a couple of messages with someone from yesterday, then a few more from 3 days ago, then one or two from a few weeks ago--those show up even before you have to use "Load More Messages", and those seem to be directly accessible from a search.

It seems like they've improved this in iOS 7, although perhaps to a limited degree. Perhaps they'll expand in the future, or perhaps this will be it (which I guess is still somewhat more than before).

I see what you're saying, and from my experience I confirm. Anything that I could scroll to see before hitting "load more messages" is found by searching in messages. Anything that does not show without loading more messages is not found, right? That's what I'm experiencing.

So, slightly better than before, but could be much better if they let you search ALL messages, no matter how far back.

 

[C DM]

I see what you're saying, and from my experience I confirm. Anything that I could scroll to see before hitting "load more messages" is found by searching in messages. Anything that does not show without loading more messages is not found, right? That's what I'm experiencing.

So, slightly better than before, but could be much better if they let you search ALL messages, no matter how far back.

Yeah, it sounds like currently the issue is not so much the one about going to the actual message in question from search--which seems to have been actually added in iOS 7--but being able to search for older messages that would appear in those "Load More Messages" sections. Perhaps this is just some indexing thing that those older messages haven't been or aren't being indexed for searching yet, or just some beta/bug type of thing.