How to Use Spotlight Search on an iPhone

“So what’s that weird gray screen that sometimes pops up accidentally when I’m trying to scroll to the right?”, you may ask. It’s Spotlight search–remember that? But this time around, they’ve done more than just add a few new cupholders. Spotlight has been a function on the iPhone for years, however with iOS 8, Apple has greatly expanded its capabilities. For those unfamiliar with the feature entirely, Spotlight has been the Google of your phone–searching music, voice memos, messages, you name it–to help you find things within your phone. However, with iOS 8, it now has the ability to access the internet, greatly enhancing its search abilities. This ain’t your grandma’s Spotlight.

First off, let’s all make sure we can find Spotlight search, and then we’ll dig a little deeper into exactly how to use it. To open the search, simply swipe downward anywhere on your homescreen (be careful not to drag from the very top, or you’ll pull down the notifications bar instead). It’ll look like this:

From here you just have to type in whatever you wish to search and Spotlight will respond with options from your phone as well as the internet. So, for example, we’ll search “Joe.” Spotlight comes up with a laundry list of entries–first an article about the late, great Joe Cocker, then a link to Joe’s most recent album, followed by the Five Guys Named Joe I currently have in my contacts (that’s right, folks, I use musical theater puns).

But that’s not all. Keep scrolling and you’ll find Spotlight has searched for those Joe-friends’ birthdays, emails to and from anyone named Joe, even all mentions of Joe within my texts.

And finally, at the very bottom, Spotlight provides links to the Web and Wikipedia. If there’s one thing Spotlight is, it’s thorough.

Once Spotlight has provided you with its multitude of options, simply tap the one you were looking for and it will open in its respective platform. Tap a contact, and it will open that contact page. Tap Wikipedia, and your phone will bring you that page on the internet. Tap an email, and your mail will open. You can even use it to find locations near you. Type in “Mexican Food,” for example, and Spotlight will not only give you a link to an article on the history of the burrito, but will also provide you the nearest locations where you can go purchase one of those suckers. As far as I’m concerned, iPhone Spotlight search really is a very convenient, all-encompassing search tool, and one that can be accessed quickly and easily. Win-win.

Editing Spotlight’s Features

Ok, so I’m going to make the wild assumption that, despite how cool I find the current Spotlight to be, there are some users out there who aren’t fans of its new functions (there have been worries voiced about how and why Spotlight records your search data). Or maybe some of you just want to tweak the way it searches, to get the most use out of its capabilities. Or maybe you just really hate Bing (totally hypothetical…). Don’t despair, Apple hasn’t completely abandoned you, and has, in fact, decided to deign users with (albeit limited) power to edit Spotlight’s functionality. Though you can’t completely delete Spotlight, you can easily stop it from searching the web, returning your Spotlight to its pre-iOS 8 capabilities. Here’s how:

1. Open Settings.

2. Tap “General.”

3. Tap “Spotlight Search.”

4. Tap “Spotlight Suggestions” and “Bing Web Results” so that the blue check mark next to each goes away.

Once these are functions are disabled, Spotlight will only be able to search within your phone–eliminating any worries about search engines getting all sneaky with your data.

In the same fashion, you can also decide which apps you wish Spotlight to search. Say, for example, you don’t want Spotlight wading through the million notes you’ve written with endless to-do lists or the huge catalog of documentaries you never seem to get around to watching (once again, totally hypothetical…) every single time you’re searching for something. Well, you can simply uncheck “Notes” and, like a 7th grade mean-girl, Spotlight will totally ignore its existence, and no longer show you search results from that app.

It’s also possible to control the order in which Spotlight will present information to you. Simply grab the three bars to the right of each item listed, and drag and drop them to your heart’s content.

The order you place these items in will determine which search results Spotlight will show you first, making it easy to customize the search to your specific needs.

What are your opinions of the new version of the iPhone Spotlight? Will you be using its new capabilities, or are you more interested in the tried-and-true functions of previous Spotlight incarnations?

For more iOS tips and tricks head to our iOS How To’s section.