In all the excitement around the launch of dark mode on iOS and Android (although, let’s be honest – one of these operating systems definitely got the short straw ) WhatsApp managed to sneak a new feature into the hugely-popular chat with little fanfare. But trust us, there should’ve been.

WhatsApp has re-engineered its in-app search capabilities to make finding the right text message, photo, video or file from your previous conversations much, much faster. The new interface resembles the one introduced by Apple to its iMessage service in iOS 13, which debuted worldwide back in September. Tapping on the search bar loads up a number of shortcuts to different media types – from photos, GIFs, weblinks, videos, documents, and audio files that have previously been sent within the app.

Until now, tapping on the search bar (which only appears when you drag down on the main list of open conversations) let users search for a specific word or phrase from a previous message. If you wanted to narrow down your search, you’d have to open a conversation with a specific recipient, tap on their name at the top of the screen to load the details of the chat, and then tap on the “Chat Search” button.

But following the update to WhatsApp 2.20.30 on iOS, you can now type out the name of a contact as you’re searching to drill-down on messages from a specific person. Tapping on one of the media types suggested means you can drill-down on a type of document or media from a particular person too.

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