Find Almost Anything

We all have become familiar with using a search engine, such as Google, to find things on the internet. Our devices have a similar feature that makes it very easy to find things both on our devices and online. It’s surprisingly powerful and useful.

Search For (Almost) Anything

Search can help you find almost anything on your device and online. You begin a search by starting at the home screen, and then pulling down from the center of the screen. Note: don’t pull down from too close to the top of the screen, as this will show Notification Center. Start in the middle of the screen.

The search screen appears, showing the search box along with some suggestions from Siri:

Note: if you’ve never used Search before, you might see an information screen first. Just tap Continue.

Siri Suggestions

Siri Suggestions shows apps you might want to start or actions you might want to take. The items shown are specific to you and based on many different factors, such as time of day, location, how often you do certain things, and more. In the example above you see a list of four apps that I might want to launch and three actions that might be typical for me right now. Just tap on one of these to launch the app or start the action.

Search

To search for something, just start typing in the search box. You can search for names, places, notes, emails, text messages, or pretty much anything. As you type, results will appear below the search box. For example, to quickly find a contact on your phone named “Alex”, just enter the name:

… or to find a word or phrase from an email you read recently, just type the words:

Beneath the search box you will see several suggestions for things that you might be searching for, followed by a list of results that match what you’ve already typed. If you tap on one of the suggestions, it will be placed in the search box and the results are updated to show items that match.

Results

The list of results contains items from many different sources, both on your device and online. For example, if you type a person’s name, you may see a result from your contact list, lists of text messages, emails, calendar appointments, and more that are related to that person.

If, instead, you type a restaurant name in the search box, you might see a link to the Maps app for directions, the restaruant’s web site, Open Table reservations, Yelp reviews, and more.

The results list can be quite long. Scroll through the list to find the specific item you’re searching for and to see other interesting results. To get more information for any of the results, simply tap on it.

Quick Actions

Some items in the result list have buttons on the right side which will let you perform quick actions on that result. For example, a contact result will have buttons for calling or messaging the person:

… while a map result will have a button for getting directions or calling:

Just tap the button to quickly perform the action on the given search result.

Extras

While Search makes it easy to find items on your device and online it has a few other tricks up its sleeve that make it even more useful.

Launch Apps

If you have a lot of apps on your device, it can be difficult to quickly find the one you want. Search can help. Just bring up the search screen and start typing the name of the app. You only need to type a few letters. Once you see the app appear in the results, tap it to quickly launch the app:

Calculator

If you need to do a quick calculation, simply type the calculation in the search box and see the result:

Currency Conversion

If you travel and need to convert the local currency into your own country’s currency, it’s quite easy. For example, to convert 100 Swedish Krona into your currency, enter “100 SEK”. To convert between any currencies just type something like “100 SEK in EUR”:

Movies

Do you want to see if a movie is playing nearby? Just start typing the name of the movie and then find the Movies section in the results. Tap on the movie name, then tap Playing at theaters nearby to see the theater names and times.

Find It!

Search is a very useful feature that can save you time and make it easy to locate what you need. There are many more things that Search can find for you than I’ve covered here: notes, reminders, songs, books, news articles and much more. If you think of something you’d like to find, try using Search. The results might just surprise you!

---