# Making "search messages" less prevalent

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/making-search-messages-less-prevalent/37705
**Category:** UX
**Created:** [January 10, 2016, 12:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/making-search-messages-less-prevalent/37705 "2016-01-10T12:39:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![erlend\_sh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/erlend_sh/32/119475_2.png) [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2016, 12:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/making-search-messages-less-prevalent/37705/1 "2016-01-10T12:39:14Z")

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Continuing the discussion from [How do you search Your Private Messages?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-you-search-your-private-messages/22111):

Searching messages exists now (I honestly don’t know since when). There’s no “in:messages” directive yet though.

But I think it’s a bit too prevalent. It currently shows up anywhere on your user page.

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/2/6/267cd763d390e1226fc8d1e8831b3b24a17cda6c.png)

That includes the content filters for:

- All
- Topics
- Replies
- Likes given
- Bookmarks

All of which ought to trigger their own search filter. I also think the global one should be “Search my posts”, not “Search messages”. The global presence of “search messages” adds to the possible confusion that “when I do a normal search, does that include a search in my Messages?”.

Actually I think an even better UX solution for “search messages” would be to not have the option at all, but to override it completely when on the Messages page:

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/e/e/eeaebc2232fb0a5756c142c325d924de1f8e47a1.png)

“Private messages do not feel private enough” is a valid UX concern that has come up before. PMs need to be in their own safe space. It also make sense to differentiate it because many normal search parameters like `category:` won’t work in messages.

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/making-search-messages-less-prevalent/37705/2 "2016-01-10T17:03:08Z")

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Yes this is a bug, search messages should only appear when you are on your messages tab. cc @sam

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/making-search-messages-less-prevalent/37705/3 "2017-02-27T22:17:34Z")

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Ok, the bug is that once you visit messages tab it does not revert to back to “search posts” the context gets “stuck”

On my list to sort this out.

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/making-search-messages-less-prevalent/37705/4 "2017-12-21T01:31:32Z")

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I know… a bit late… fixed per:

[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/6bf3bee473f2008ee756256a1ce11a669ef1a1a0](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/6bf3bee473f2008ee756256a1ce11a669ef1a1a0)

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/making-search-messages-less-prevalent/37705/5 "2017-12-21T01:31:34Z")

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