How to search in Front

Front has many options to help you search through your history effectively. Typing in words directly into the search bar will search all parameters for the matching term, or you can use search filters to narrow down your results. Front will show you the most relevant search results in the search dropdown, and chronological results below that.

Click the search bar at the top of your Front inbox to pull up the search menu. Type in your keywords and you will see automatic suggestions in a dropdown; press Enter to see a full list of results.

The dropdown menu at the left of the search bar gives you the option to choose between searching the inbox that you're currently viewing, all items in your sidebar, or All inboxes. The more specific the inbox, the better the results are.

If you'd like to search a specific inbox, you can either:

• Open the inbox in your sidebar, then click the search bar and select the inbox from the dropdown, as shown in the screenshot above

• From any inbox, you can select All inboxes from the dropdown, then further refine your search by using the inbox search filter (explained below)

View the full list of Advanced Filters either by clicking the down arrow in the search dropdown, or by typing the + into the search bar. See the Search filters section below for an explanation of each filter.

Click the icon to the right of the search bar to open the search builder. This menu gives you a simple way to build your search using all the search filters available.

The search builder will also remember your search settings even when you close the menu. It will reset once you conduct another search using the search bar.

After all of your searches, you will see additional filters in the search filter bar. These filters allow you to further refine your search to find that one conversation you need.

Click on one or more of the filters to apply them to your search. To remove a filter from your search, simply click the filter again to unselect it.

For filters with dropdowns, use the menus to search for specific values and apply them to your search.

See this article to learn how to search for keywords in the conversation you're currently viewing.

You can exclude search results containing a keyword by typing a dash '-' before the keyword. For example, search for conversations about “meeting” but not related to “budget” by typing: meeting -budget into the search bar.

Supported:

1. Exclude a keyword from the results by typing -keyword

Unsupported:

1. Exclude a phrase by using quotation marks -”this is a phrase”

2. Search with only a negated keyword. For instance, is:archived -budget won't return any results

3. Search removing a prefix match -pre*

• Search results match your exact search terms. Searching for Pete will only show results containing Pete — not Peter or Peters.

• Front supports searches by prefix. If you're looking for an email from Mathilde Collin, you can type math* or coll* without quotations.

• To search an exact phrase, use quotation marks around your search phrase to search an exact match, like "Weekly Team Update".

• You can stack multiple search filters. For example, searching for tag:urgent tag:vip will return conversations tagged with both these tags.

• The ranking of the "Top results" suggestions displayed in the search dropdown after typing in your search is based on whether and how often the search term appears in key fields like recipient, subject, body, comments, etc. Each field has different weights. We also give higher weights to recent results as they are more likely to be relevant.

• The Trash and Spam folders are not automatically included when you search for keywords. If you want to include these folders, use the is:trashed or is:spam filter in your search.

• If your search query includes a misspelling and no exact match is found, Front will suggest the closest matching alternative with relevant results. 

Using filters in your searches will help you narrow your search to specific team members, inboxes, recipients, and so on.

• inbox:inbox name - search conversations in a specific inbox

• type:inbox type - refines your search to conversations of a specific channel type (email, tweets, SMS)

• in:messages - refines your search to conversations where all the query terms are present inside one of the messages (not comments or attachments)

• in:attachments - refines your search to conversations where the text match is inside these file types: PDF, CSV, XLS, XLSX, DOCX, TXT. It's only possible to search in attachments content for emails. Attachment content coming from channel integrations is not searchable

• not-in:attachments - refines your search to exclude matches found in attachments

• in:comments - refines your search to conversations where the text match is inside comments

• subject: - refines your search to conversations with this content only in the subject

• body: - refines your search to conversations with this content only in the body

• assignee:teammate name - refines your search to conversations assigned to a specific team member

• author:teammate name - searches for messages and comments sent by one of your teammates

• participant:teammate name - refines your search to conversations that a specific teammate participated in

• mention:teammate name - refines your search to conversations that a specific teammate has been mentioned in

• commenter:teammate name - refines your search to conversations with comments left by a specific team member

• with:teammate name - refines your search to conversations with a specific teammate anywhere they are involved. This includes recipient fields (From, To, CC, BCC), assignee field in conversations, author field in comments, etc.

• has:reminder - refines your search to conversations that have been snoozed or where a reminder has been set up

• has:attachment - refines your search to conversations that have an attachment

• has:no-calendar - excludes calendar updates from your search results

• recipient:contact - refines your search to conversations with a specific contact either in the From, To, CC or BCC fields

• from:contact - refines your search to conversations sent by a specific contact

• to:contact - searches for conversations sent to a specific contact. This will include both CC-ed and BCC-ed recipients as well

• cc:contact - refines your search to conversations with a specific contact in the CC field

• bcc:contact - searches for conversations with a specific contact in the BCC field

• with:contact - refines your search to conversations with a specific contact anywhere they are involved. This includes all recipient fields (From, To, CC, BCC).

• account:account name - refines your search to conversations with contacts linked to a specific account

• is:open - refines your search to conversations either assigned or unassigned

• is:archived - refines your search to archived conversations

• is:snoozed - refines your search to conversations that have been snoozed

• is:assigned - searches for assigned conversations

• is:unassigned - searches for unassigned conversations

• is:shared-with-me - searches for conversations that appear in your Shared with me folder

• is:unread - refines your search to conversations with unread messages

• is:unreplied - searches for conversations that haven't been replied to yet

• is:subscribed - searches for conversations that you're subscribed to

• is:unsubscribed - searches for conversations you've unsubscribed from

• is:discussion - searches for all of your internal discussions

• is:starred - searches for conversations you've starred

• is:spam - searches for conversations marked as spam

• is:trashed - refines your search to trashed conversations

• ticket_status:Open - searches for conversations with an Open ticket status

• ticket_status:Waiting - searches for conversations with a Waiting ticket status

• ticket_status:Resolved - searches for conversations with a Resolved ticket status

• tag:tag name - refines your search to conversations tagged with a specific tag. You'll want to use an underscore ( _ ) in between words when searching for a tag name that includes multiple words.
  For example, if you want to search for a tag named "Everything is awesome", you should enter exactly: tag:everything_is_awesome in the search.

• has:no-tags - searches for conversations without any tags applied

• custom_field:field name=value - searches for conversations with the conversation custom field name and value specified

  • Text values: Enter the value verbatim

  • Date values: Provide the value in YYYY-MM-DD format. Supports advanced operators. Example: To search for conversations with the "Due date" custom field between Jan 10-15, type custom_field:"Due date>=2025-01-10" and custom_field:"Due date<=2025-01-15"

  • Inbox values: Specify the inbox ID (e.g. inb_12345). Inbox IDs can be obtained via inbox export or the API

  • Number values: Input a numerical value. Supports advanced operators (e.g. greater than, less than).

  • Teammate values: Use the teammate's Front username (used in @ mentions)

  • Dropdown values: Select one of the options provided in plain text

  • Boolean values: Indicate either true or false as the value

  • When a field or a value includes a blank space, use double quotes after the colon. Example: custom_field:"Address=101 front app, 1522"

• ticket_id:prefix-number - searches for a conversation with a matching ticket ID

• link:link name - refines your search to conversations tagged with a specific link

• object:object name - refines your search to conversations tagged with a specific application object

• before:date - searches for messages before or on a certain date. Example: before:2016-08-31

• after:date - searches for messages after or on a specific date. Example: after:2016-08-01

• during:date - searches conversations received or sent during a specific day, month, or year; if you need to search between two specific dates, use the before and after filters. Example: during:2016-08 

To enter specific dates, use the following format: YYYY-MM-DD