How to Search in Windows Phone 8.1

Microsoft plans to line up their products under “One” view is now reflecting in Windows Phone as well. One of the major changes in Windows Phone 8.1 is the introduction of Windows 8 like universal search which lets you find anything and everything on Windows Phone.

Phone Search : A Hidden Gem

I call it hidden because it’s not directly available where it should be but rather available as part of their big search view. When you type in a query either using Cortana or Bing Search, apart from listing Web Results, Images. Videos and Local listing, there is another section—phone—which lists down contents matching to your query but available in your phone.

What can be searched:

One reason why I think Phone search has less priority is because there are few features still missing. So now you can search within music, app names, emails, contacts, messages and phone settings. There are no options to search within apps or even change settings where you can include and exclude apps

We will have to wait a bit till we get a pure universal search with more control till then here is a nice tip. You can directly start a phone search by saying search queries like “Find an email from X”, “Find a message from Y” and so on.

Bring Local Scout Back:

This app is now available through Bing Maps and includes an option to pin it. Launch Bing Maps and tap on the local scout icon in the menu bar. Repeat the menu option again and choose Pin to Start. A lot of users love to use Bing, specially if you are in US, for local listing and this will be handy.

The Old Store Search is Missing Cortana

If you hate opening store app all the time when you want to find an app, its possible to do that but this feature is not connected with Cortana or Bing Search. Instead when you open the app list on your phone ( swipe left from Start Screen), you can type and then select “Search Store”.

This will launch the store in search mode with your query. It works well but I would love it to have it in Bing or Cortana as well. So when I say to Cortana to find an app in the store, it doesn’t work out.

Web Searches:

This is pretty straight forward and nothing has changed. It’s the primary pane that shows up when you type anything in Cortana and Global searches.

That said, it’s good to see how Windows Phone Search is shaping up and we believe more update should be on the way. Hopefully you will be even able to search within your PC as well like you can get access to tabs in IE.

So, here are some questions for you. How are you searching on the phone? Do you use Cortana? Do you think Phone search should be available as pinable tile?