With over a 1.5 billion people using WhatsApp to communicate on a daily basis everyone’s chat archive builds up over time. What if later you wish to find an address that your friend shared with you on WhatsApp. Swiping within a chat to get to the desired message is a mundane and time killing task. And it’s such a disappointment when you don’t find the message you’re looking for. To take care of that WhatsApp has the option to search messages within certain chats. In this tutorial, we let you know how to use it and search specific WhatsApp chats or groups.
You can also search within all the chats at once if you wish. If you are not sure about the sender of the message you’re searching for then it can come in handy. That feature performs a search in all the chats and groups. We have mentioned the steps for that too. Besides that, we have also mentioned how you can search emoji on WhatsApp.
Search Specific WhatsApp Chats/Groups
- Launch WhatsApp and open the conversation which you wish to search.
Android
- In the conversation screen, tap on 3 dots at the top right and select Search.
- This will make a search bar appear at the top of the chat.
- Type the search query and let the search function do the rest.
iPhone
- Under the individual chat or group, you opened tap on its name above.
- This will take you to Contact/Group Info screen. Tap on Chat Search in this screen.
- Now, the chat will be opened with a search box at the top. Type in the word or phrase you recollect from the message.
Boom! In a jiffy, you will be taken to an instance of the searched word highlighted in yellow in the whole conversation if it exists. In case of multiple messages matching the search query, there will be an up and down arrow to navigate through the messages containing the search keyword.
Similarly, you can search in other WhatsApp chats or groups.
Search In All WhatsApp Chats At Once
- Open your updated WhatsApp application
- Go to Chats Tab and you’ll find the search bar at the top.
- You can type in your word/phrase which you want to search.
- As soon as you type your search word or phrase, the same will be searched in entire chat of all the contacts and groups and results will show up from the chats where your word matches.
- As soon as you click on the chat for which your word/phrase matches it will take you to the message where the word matches in the entire conversation
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Apart from all this, you can also search members within a group. Here’s how.
Search Group Participants On WhatsApp
- Launch WhatsApp and select the desired Group where you want to search for a person.
- When you are inside the Group conversation tap on the Group name at the top to go to Group Info.
- Under Group Info, go down where it shows the Participants. Now, you will see SEARCH option (iPhone) or search icon (Android) at the top right of the list. Tap on it.
- This will take you to Search Participants screen. Type the name or number of the person you are looking for in the search bar at the top.
- If that person exists in that group it will appear in the results. After that, you can tap on their name to get a list of quick actions. From the menu, you can send them a message in personal chat or place voice/video call directly from the group.
Similarly, you can search for participants in other WhatsApp groups.
WhatsApp Emoji Search
There is no official option in iPhone to search emoji on WhatsApp. However, there is a native iOS feature which can help you in achieving that. Here’s how.
Search Emoji On WhatsApp On iPhone
1. Head over to Settings and select General.
2. Under General select Keyboard.
3. Next, toggle Predictive switch to ON.
With this, there will be an additional row added above the keyboard keys which shows suggestions based on the word you type. We leverage this feature to search Emojis. You can now open WhatsApp and type “love” you will see an Emoji that matches the text in the suggestion.
Tap on it to get it in the message box for sending. Similarly, it will show Emojis for other words if there are any.
You can even create your own shortcuts for Emojis on iOS to type them if you are not satisfied with the default suggestions.
Android
WhatsApp has the Emoji search feature officially which was rolled out recently.
1. Open WhatsApp and select the desired conversation(personal or group chat).
2. Tap on the Emoji icon which is present to the left of the message field. Now, select the search icon at the bottom left of the keyboard.
3. A new search field will appear. Type the word related to the emoji you want and all the emojis matching that word will come up.
This does cuts down the time to find emojis.
Also Read: How to Take WhatsApp Backup Using Mobile Data Instead Of WiFi
WhatsApp Web & Desktop
If you are using the web version or the software for Windows and Mac then all you need to do is use the following query.
Type : and then start typing the word connected with the Emoji. If there are any Emoji’s matching your query then they will appear in a new row that is added above the message box.
: signals that you are trying to search for an Emoji on the web and desktop WhatsApp version.
Also Read: How to Export WhatsApp Contacts to Computer or Smartphone
We hope that these methods will help you save a lot of time while typing emojis in your WhatsApp messages. If you think that the tutorial provides value then don’t forget it to share it with your friends.
Conclusion
Searching participants is yet another handy feature on WhatsApp. It not only lets you find a person in the group in a jiffy but also allows you to message or call them immediately.
Also, from now on, finding specific messages on WhatsApp are just a tap away. A pretty useful feature of a great messaging app. Isn’t it, what are your thoughts? Drop a comment and let us know.