Searching for a user or conversation in the app desktop and web

Last updated on February 14, 2022

The search bar located in the top bar can be used no matter where you are in the app. You can use the search bar to look for a particular app user or conversation, whether that’s a direct message, group, or team conversation. You can also use the search bar to look for a specific message in a conversation.

Using the search bar

To use the search bar, click into it to reveal a list of your recent searches. Begin typing into the search bar to begin your search. As you type, a dropdown menu will appear with a list of search results matching your search.

When you use the search bar, your search results will be separated into some or all the following categories:

Content, or specific messages
People, or app users in the account
Groups & Teams

If you’d like to perform a specific action, such as start a call or chat with the person, group, or team you’re searching for, you can do this by hovering over and selecting any of the actions that appear at far right of any conversation, user, group, or team. We’ll review each of these actions later, but for now let’s discuss how you can perform an advanced search.

Advanced search

If there are a lot of search results that appear under a certain category and not all of them appear in the search dropdown, you may choose to look through all of them by using the advanced search. The Content search section allows you to search for a specific content in all conversations or specific messages in this conversation. Search [given string] in this conversation appears only when the user has opened a conversation.

To view the full list of search results, click the Show more text that appears at the bottom of any category that contains more search results than what appears in the window. This will take you to the full list of search results for that category.

If you’d like to search through the other categories while in an advanced search, simply select any of the category tabs at the top of the search box.

Messages

Under the Messages tab, you can search for a specific message in any conversation, either in a direct message, group, or team. Next to the Results heading, you’ll find the number of results in parentheses. If you’d like to further filter your results, you can use the Filters pane in the right-hand side of the window.

You can use the following options by which to filter your search results:

Posted by: Type the name or email address of the person who posted the message you’re looking for.
Posted in: Type the name of the conversation (the team name or name of the user(s)) to look for a message in a particular conversation.
Type: Choose from a list of message types to filter your search by a specific type. Options include All, Messages, Events, Files, Links, Notes, and Tasks.
Time posted: Select a date range from this dropdown to filter your search by messages posted in that date range. Options include Anytime, This week, This month, and This year.

Company Contacts

Under the Company Contacts tab, you’ll find a list of app users that match your search. These users are either your co-workers or guest users. If you hover your mouse over any of the names in your search results, a series of icons will appear at the far right of the name. Clicking on any of these icons will allow you to perform one of the following actions:

Message that person via the Message double chat bubble icon
Start a meeting with that person via the Meeting video camera icon
Call that person via the Call phone icon
View that person’s profile via the Open profile option under the More icon

If you’d like to message a person, in addition to selecting the Message chat bubble icon to start a message, you can also simply select their name in the search results to open a conversation with them.

Note: Some of the actions listed above might not be available either because of your or the other person’s permissions within the app.

Personal Contacts

Under the Personal contacts tab, you’ll find a list of the contacts that you have either added from within the app or via the sync option with your Microsoft and Google accounts. If you hover your mouse over any of these contacts, some icons will appear at the far right of the name. Clicking any of these icons will allow you to perform one of the following actions:

Call that person via the Call phone icon
View that person’s profile via the Open profile person icon
Invite that person to become an app user via the Invite by email envelope icon
Share an invite link with that person to become an app user via the Get invite link chain icon
Remove that person from your personal contacts list via the Delete trash can icon

In order to locate some of the options listed above, you may need to hover your mouse over the contact and select the More icon at the far right to reveal a dropdown containing more options to select from.

Groups & Teams

Under the Groups & Teams tab, you’ll find a list of all active groups and teams you’re a part of that match your search. If you hover your mouse over any of the groups or teams, a series of icons will appear at far right of the name. Clicking on any of these icons will allow you to perform one of the following actions:

Message that group/team via the Message chat bubble icon
Start a meeting with that group/team via the Meet video camera icon
Start a conference call with that group/team via the Start conference call multi-circle icon
View that group’s or team’s profile via the Open group/team profile option under the More icon

If you haven’t joined a team that appears in your search results, when you hover your mouse over that team, a Join button will appear at far right instead of the above icons. You can join a team by selecting that button.

Advanced search under Groups and Teams tab

Note: You can view and join public teams while searching. To join a private team, you must first be invited by an existing member or admin of that team.

Searching for messages in a specific conversation

There may be times where you need to locate a message buried within a specific conversation. To search for a specific message in one conversation, follow these steps:

Navigate to Message via the left-hand navigation bar.
Select the conversation from the conversation list in which you’d like to search for a message.
Click into the search bar and type in any text you feel might be associated with the message you’re looking for.
In the search results, under Content search, select [search text] in this conversation to open all messages in that conversation that contain the text you searched for.
Under the Messages tab, scroll through the list of messages until you find the one you’re looking for.
Hover over that message and click View in conversation to see the full message in the conversation message thread.

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