WhatsApp 'Advanced Search' Feature Coming Soon to iPhone Users on Beta: Report

WhatsApp is working on several new features like Dark Mode, a group invitation control system, and more. A new 'Advanced Search' feature will now reportedly be available to all iOS beta app users in a future update. This feature is said to allow users to search for photos, links, audio, GIF images, and even videos, apart from the usual text search that is already enabled. The Advanced Search feature will also show recent searches as well, and this feature will trickle down to Android users eventually.

Of course, WhatsApp already has a Search feature that allows you to search for specific chats, but it is limited to text only. The 'Advanced Search' feature will reportedly allow users to search multiple types of message and you will be able to search between photos, GIFs, videos, documents, links and even audio. WhatsApp beta tracker WABetaInfo made this claim in a report earlier this week. Once you tap on the advanced search bar, the screen will report on how many media files are stored in your WhatsApp Storage. If you tap on Photos, WhatsApp will open all photos shared in all groups and chats in a list format. The search result will also include a preview, so you avoid opening the search result in order to see it. This result can then be filtered further by typing more keywords in the search bar.

The same thing will occur if you tap GIF images, links, or documents in the new search bar. The new Advanced Search feature also reports your search history, and it also comes with an option to clear all of those recent searches, if you so prefer.

As mentioned, this feature is still under development, and will roll out to all iOS beta app users in a future update. To join the WhatsApp Beta program on iOS, iPhone users will have to download the TestFlight app from the App Store and request a slot. Please refer to our guide for a step by step process. We are on the latest iOS beta version 2.19.30, and are not able to see the Advanced Search feature yet.