Search WhatsApp Chat Messages by Date
The steps are easy to follow. However, note that searching messages by date is only possible on the WhatsApp iOS app for now. The feature will be rolled out for Android and iPadOS users soon and the process should remain the same.
- Open WhatsApp on your iPhone.
- Now open the chat where you want to search for an old message by date. Tap on the name of the person/profile at the top. Note: The WhatsApp search by date option is available for both personal and business accounts.
- You should now see a new Search button at the top. In the below screenshot, the first is a business account while the other is a personal account. In the latter, you will see some other filter options too like Audio, Video, and Pay.
- You will be taken back to the chat screen. Tap on the date icon in the lower right corner of the screen to view a date scroll wheel. Select a date, month, and year by scrolling the wheel and then tap on Jump to Date button at the bottom. The moment you tap on Jump to Date, WhatsApp will scroll through the messages and opens the date you have selected. It is quick and takes less than a second.
Pro Tip: Use WhatsApp to Take Personal Notes and Search by Date
In a recent guide, we explained how you can now send messages to yourself on WhatsApp. So here’s a neat hack. Sending messages to yourself is a great way to take quick notes and jot down thoughts and ideas that are crossing your mind. Later, you can easily find these messages or notes using the Search by Date feature that WhatsApp just released. This will turn your WhatsApp chat, or should I say personal chat, into an online diary. WhatsApp is now so much more than a simple messaging app. You can send audio, video, images, and PDF files via chat easily. And in some countries, WhatsApp is used to send and receive payments. Not only that, you can now sign PDF files and other docs that were sent on WhatsApp too. While there is the Media, Links, and Docs option that you can use to view all sent and received media files and documents, there was no way to open the chat date from the messages. Now, simply search for the date within WhatsApp chat if you remember when the file was shared. Or, you can check the date from the Media, Links, and Docs menu and use that info to locate related chats. The search by date option on WhatsApp will definitely make it easier for users to filter messages, payments, and files in their chats and find what they are looking for quickly.
- Can I search chat messages by date on WhatsApp Web? For now, no. WhatsApp may release it for their web app in the future though.
- What if there are no messages on the date I select in WhatsApp Search? In that case, WhatsApp will scroll to the next date. For example, if you select 1st December 2021 and there is a message on 3rd December, then WhatsApp opens that. So it’s always the next date and not the previous one.
You Got a Date!
The ability to search and filter messages on WhatsApp chat by date is a welcome move. This will surely help many users given how much we still rely on WhatsApp for not only sending messages but also files of all sorts. And now that you can create and manage communities on WhatsApp, the search by date feature becomes even more important.
