For some reason, search in messaging apps still leaves something to be desired. It’s gotten better, but whether you’re using Facebook Messenger or Apple’s Messages, you’re going to be scrolling through a lot of irrelevant texts to find the one you’re looking for.
WhatsApp has these two chat apps beat, here—which is funny, considering Meta also owns Messenger. But if you use WhatsApp for your messaging needs, you’re able to search for messages by date, for both individual threads and group chats. This has been an option for WhatsApp users on iOS, macOS, and the web app for some time now, but WhatsApp started rolling out the feature for Android on Wednesday. Mark Zuckerberg announced the change on his WhatsApp channel. In his example, Zuckerberg searches for a particular video of a friend singing karaoke from a specific date.
How to search for messages by date on WhatsApp
Searching for messages from a particular date should work the same no matter which platform you’re running WhatsApp on. To start, open a thread or a group chat, then tap the contact or group name to open the conversation detail menu. Now, tap the calendar icon that appears, choose the specific date you’re looking for, and the app will go back in time to show you messages from that date.
While it’d be convenient to have the option to search for messages on a date range, rather than a specific date, this is definitely a useful feature I wish more messaging apps would adopt. I have years of messages in my various chat apps, and it’s a bummer having to search for vague keywords to try to find an iMessage from, say, 2017. But if you remember that the message happened on the Fourth of July, or somewhere near the end of September, searching by date will likely be a helpful tool.
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