Use Spotlight Search on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Search helps you quickly find anything on your device and on the web. Search also offers suggestions and updates results as you type.
Swipe to search
Swipe down from the middle of the Home screen.
Tap the Search field, then enter what you're looking for. As you type, Search updates results in real time.
To see more results, tap Show More or search directly in an app by tapping Search in App.
Tap a search result to open it.
In iOS 27 or iPad OS 27 on a device that supports Siri AI, you can also access Siri AI when you swipe down.
In iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and later, you can also tap the Search field at the bottom of your Home Screen to start a search.
Learn more about the Spotlight indexing process and what to do if you get unexpected search results
Siri AI is not available for iOS and iPadOS in the EU. Siri AI will not currently work if your Apple Account region is in mainland China.
Search shows the most relevant results but might be limited by how far back an app synced with iCloud. Change which apps sync and store data with iCloud. If you hide an app, it doesn't show up in search results until you unhide it.
Create notes, make phone calls, and do more from Search results
In iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and later, you can sometimes take actions directly within your search results:
Search for an app like Notes, and your results include the option to create a new note.
Search for a setting like Airplane Mode, and you can toggle the setting on or off.
Search for a phone number or contact, and you can call it, send a message, or start a FaceTime call.
You can also search for specific things by name — like "emails from [Name]" or "photos of [Name] at [location]" — and find items from apps like Mail or Photos in your search results.
Change search settings
You can change the search settings to limit which apps and results appear while you're searching.
Change search settings for individual apps
Go to Settings and tap Search.
Scroll down and select an app.
Turn the setting that you want to change on or off: Show App in Search, Show Content in Search, Show on Home Screen, Suggest App, or Suggest Notifications.
If you turn off Show App in Search or Show Content in Search for an app, it prevents Siri AI from being able to find personal context from that app.
Turn web-based search results on or off
In the Settings app, tap Search.
Turn Show Related Content off.
Turn Show Recent Searches off.
Turn Siri Suggestion Notifications on or off
In the Settings app, tap Notifications.
Tap Suggestion Notifications.
Turn all suggestions on or off by tapping Allow Notifications. Or, you can stop suggestions for specific apps by turning them off.
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