WhatsApp launches in-chat search button for iPhone users

WhatsApp has begun rolling out a new in‑chat search button for iPhone users, following a few weeks of beta testing that started last month. The feature lets users tap a magnifying‑glass icon inside any conversation and type a keyword to find that word or phrase within the chat history, including media captions and attachments. It is available in the iOS 17 version of the app and is being deployed gradually, with users in the United States receiving the update first.

The move comes after a growing chorus of complaints from long‑time users who find it hard to locate specific messages in long threads. Similar search tools are standard on other messaging platforms like iMessage, Telegram and Signal, and the feature has been in WhatsApp’s roadmap for a while. Beta testers reported that the button helped them recover lost photos, locate a shared location, and find a forgotten code or password. The company said the new UI is designed to keep the search bar hidden until needed, so it does not clutter the chat screen for casual users.

In practice, the search bar appears as a small icon in the top right of the chat header. When pressed, a text field slides down and a list of matching messages pops up, sorted by most recent. The search can include emojis and works across text, images, documents and voice notes. However, the feature does not yet support searching for dates or filtering by message type, and it only searches the current conversation, not the entire chat history across the device. WhatsApp also announced that the search results are not saved or indexed by the company, addressing privacy concerns that some users raised during the beta.

WhatsApp plans to expand the rollout to all iPhone users over the next two weeks, with an Android version expected later in the year. The company is also looking at adding a global search that would let users find keywords across all chats, similar to the desktop app’s “Find in all chats” feature. If successful, the new in‑chat search could make WhatsApp more competitive against other platforms that already offer robust search tools, and it may encourage users to keep longer, richer conversations on the app.