Support Center

Searching uChat Messages

uChat's message search lets you find past messages quickly while keeping your conversations completely private. Because uChat uses end-to-end encryption, your search queries never leave your device — the search runs entirely in your browser.

How It Works

  1. Open any conversation in uChat
  2. Tap the 🔍 search icon in the top-right corner of the message panel (next to the ✕ close button)
  3. A search bar appears with a 🔒 Local privacy badge — this confirms the search runs on your device

Searching Messages

  1. Type your search term in the search bar
  2. Results appear instantly as you type — showing the sender name, date, and matching text with the search term highlighted
  3. Click any result to scroll directly to that message in the conversation — it will briefly flash to help you spot it

When results are found, a navigation bar shows the result count (e.g., "2 of 7"):

  • Use the ▲ / â–ŧ arrows to jump between results one by one
  • The currently selected result is highlighted with an accent border
  • Results wrap around — pressing â–ŧ on the last result takes you back to the first

You can collapse the search bar by tapping the 🔍 icon again without losing your results:

  • The results list disappears, but the compact navigation bar stays visible
  • You can continue using ▲ / â–ŧ to cycle through found messages
  • Tap the 🔍 icon to re-open the full search bar and results list
  • Tap the ✕ button on the navigation bar to fully dismiss the search and clear results

What Can Be Searched

Searchable Not Searchable
✅ Text messages you've viewed ❌ Messages you haven't opened yet
✅ Links and URLs in messages ❌ Voice message content
✅ Messages from the current session ❌ File attachment names
✅ Previously cached messages ❌ System messages

TIP

Search works best for messages you've already viewed. The more conversations you open, the more messages become searchable — they're cached securely on your device after decryption.

Privacy & Security

uChat message search follows the same privacy-first approach as the rest of uChat:

  • Your search terms never leave your device — the search runs entirely in your browser using locally cached message data
  • No server queries for content — the Mallnline server cannot see what you're searching for
  • Cache is cleared on logout — when you sign out, all cached message data is wiped from your device
  • The 🔒 Local badge in the search bar confirms that the search is running privately

This is the same approach used by Signal and other leading privacy-focused messengers.

NOTE

The server can help you filter by metadata like sender, date, or conversation type — but it never sees your message content or search terms. Only non-encrypted information (who sent a message, when, and what type) is used for server-side filtering.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I search across all my conversations at once? Currently, search operates within the active conversation. Open the conversation you want to search, then use the 🔍 button. Cross-conversation search using metadata filters (like finding all messages from a specific sender) is available through the backend API and will be exposed in the UI in a future update.

Why don't some messages show up in search? Only messages that have been decrypted and viewed are searchable. If you haven't scrolled to or opened a conversation recently, those messages may not yet be in your local cache. Open the conversation to load and cache the messages, then try searching again.

Are my search queries private? Yes — completely. Your search terms run against data stored locally on your device. The Mallnline server never receives, logs, or processes your search queries. The 🔒 Local badge in the search bar confirms this.

What happens to my search cache when I log out? All cached message data is automatically deleted from your browser when you sign out. This ensures that no plaintext message content remains on shared or public devices.

Can I search for voice messages or images? Not currently. Voice messages and images are stored as encrypted binary data and cannot be text-searched. You can use the metadata filters (coming soon in the UI) to find all messages with attachments.

NOTE

For Developers: See uChat Message Search (E2EE) for the full technical architecture, IndexedDB schema, and GraphQL API reference.