Inbox Search

You can search across your Smart Inbox, Inbox Views and Reviews to look for messages with a certain word or phrase from a specific person or see the message count for a certain word or phrase. Then, you can tag and export those messages to analyze trends. 

Inbox Search is a great way to quickly find messages from a certain profile or by a specific keyword, bulk-tag messages and identify spam content. You can also search for keywords and social profiles in Sprout's iOS and Android apps.

The following table provides a breakdown of the message types that appear in your results when searching for messages containing particular keywords or messages from specific social profiles: 

Network/Message Type	Keyword Search	Social Profile Search
Twitter - All message types	Since you connected your Twitter profile to Sprout.	Since you connected your Twitter profile to Sprout.
Facebook - Comments, Ad Comments and Wall Posts	Since you connected your Facebook profile to Sprout.	Since you connected your Facebook profile to Sprout.
Facebook - Private Messages	Since you connected your Facebook profile to Sprout.	No private DM backfill.
Instagram - All message types	Since you connected your Instagram profile to Sprout.	Only the previous 30 days.
LinkedIn - All message types	Since you connected your LinkedIn profile to Sprout.	No messages appear due to privacy restrictions.

Keyword search

You can search your inbox to find messages and reviews that contain a specific keyword or phrase. 

To search your inbox for a keyword or phrase:

1. Navigate to the Smart Inbox tab.
2. Click into the search bar at the top of the screen.
3. Enter a keyword or phrase you want to search for. See the section on Advanced Search Options for helpful tips and tricks. 
4. Press Enter or Return to run your search. Your Smart Inbox view updates to show the messages containing the keyword or phrase you searched for. 
   
   
5. (Optional) Filter your search results by clicking the filter dropdown or specify a particular date range by clicking the Custom Range filter.
   
   

If you want to search your messages from all time, click Search all messages instead? at the top of the Smart Inbox. Toggle back to your applied filters by clicking Search within current filters instead?

Keyword search on mobile

To run a keyword search in Sprout's mobile app:

1. Navigate to the Smart Inbox.
2. Tap in the Search messages box in iOS or Search inbox in Android.
   
   
3. Enter the keywords you want to search for.
4. Tap to see your search results from the current filters you have applied. If you want to search all messages in your Smart Inbox, tap Search All.
   
   

Social profile search

You can search your Smart Inbox to find messages from a specific social profile or user name. To search your inbox for messages from a social profile:

1. Navigate to the Messages tab.
2. Click into the search bar at the top of the screen.
3. Enter the social profile or user’s name you want to search for. Parenthesis automatically surround the name of the social profile. You can either enter something like a Twitter profile (@coffeeguy2020) or by a name (Mandy P.).
4. Click from author or profile name. 
   
   
5. Press Enter to run your search. Your Smart Inbox view updates to show only messages from the social profile you searched for. 
6. (Optional) Filter your search results by clicking the filter dropdown or specify a particular date range by clicking the Custom Range filter.

If you want to search your messages from all time, click Search all messages instead? at the top of the Smart Inbox. Toggle back to your applied filters by clicking Search within current filters instead?

Social profile search on mobile

To run a social profile search in Sprout's mobile app:

1. Navigate to the Smart Inbox.
2. Tap in the Search messages box in iOS or Search inbox in Android.
   
   
3. Enter the social profile you want to search for.
4. Tap to see your search results from the current filters you have applied. If you want to search all messages in your Smart Inbox, tap Search All.

Advanced Search Options

Certain words and characters are reserved for special search functions in your Smart Inbox. The following table provides the operators you can use to quickly find the messages you want.

Operator	Function	Example	Description
	multiple words	Sprout coffee	Returns messages with both Sprout and coffee, but not necessarily as an exact phrase.
" "	an exact word or phrase	"Sprout coffee"	Returns messages with the exact phrase "Sprout coffee"
from	from a specific user	from:Justyn	Returns messages from a user or profile that contains the name "Justyn."
contains	separate from: and message content	from:(Coffee Guy) contains:latte	Returns messages received from a user or profile name that contains "Coffee" and "Guy" and the message contains the word "latte."
OR	either word	Sprout OR coffee	Returns messages that contain either the word "Sprout" or "coffee" or both.
NOT	exclude	"caramel latte" NOT coffee	Returns messages that contain "caramel latte" but not "coffee".
NOT ()	exclude groups	coffee drinks NOT (latte OR cappuccino)	Returns messages that contain both "coffee" and "drinks" but not "latte" or "cappuccino".
NOT " "	exclude phrases	mocha NOT "caffe mocha"	Returns messages that contain "mocha" but not "caffe mocha".
( OR )	complex groups	(cinnamon OR whip) coffee	Returns messages that contain either "cinnamon" or "whip" and "coffee".
( ) OR	complex groups	(taste good) OR delicious	Returns messages that contain both "taste" and "good" or "delicious".

You can also use the following characters to perform special search functions: + - = && || >< ! ( ) { } [ ] ^ ~ * ? : \ /

If you want to search for a message that contains some of these characters, you can search for those messages by entering a \ before the character. For example, you can search for cool! by entering cool\! 

 

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