Search
Search chats, people, messages, files and links in TACENZA Chat. Search runs on your device, and what you type never reaches the server.
Search in TACENZA Chat happens entirely on your device, over messages your device has decrypted. The server can’t search your messages – it can’t read them – and what you type never leaves your device. This page explains how to search, why older messages sometimes need an extra step, and the optional search index.
Open search
- Press Ctrl + K (Cmd + K on a Mac), or choose Search in the navigation.
- Type what you’re looking for. The placeholder says it all: “Search chats, people, messages, files… or type a command”.
Results are grouped into Commands, Chats, People, Messages, Files and Links. Choose a message result to jump to it in its chat. Your Recent searches are shown when the box is empty.
Matching ignores upper and lower case and accents, but keeps the Danish å apart from a.
Commands
The same box runs commands, such as New message, Switch light / dark, or going to a page like Settings or Discover.
Search in one chat
From a chat, you can search just that conversation. The result list says which chat it’s searching.
Why some messages aren’t found
Search looks through what your device has loaded. The result list says how many loaded chats it searched.
- If a message isn’t found, choose Search further back.
- Your device loads older pages of the chat, as it does when you scroll up, and searches them too.
- When everything is loaded, the list says Searched the whole chat.
The server sees only that older pages were requested, never what you searched for.
Search index on this device
To find older messages without loading pages again, you can keep a search index on a device. It’s off by default.
- Open Settings › Devices.
- Under On this device, turn on Search index on this device.
How it works:
- It keeps messages this device has decrypted: sender, time, text, file name and channel. It never holds attachment keys.
- It’s stored encrypted in the browser, with a key that opens only after you sign in.
- Protected chats, disappearing messages and locations are never indexed. When a chat becomes protected, its entries are removed.
- Deleted messages are removed from the index. A chat’s entries go when you leave or delete it.
- Turning the index off deletes it. So does deleting your account.
Nothing from the index is sent anywhere. Only use it on a device that’s yours: anyone who can sign in to your account on that device could search it.
Other places to search
- The search field at the top of Chats filters your chat list, and starts a chat when you type a full username.
- Discover is searched on your device: the whole directory is downloaded, so the server never sees what you look for.
- Each chat’s Shared content lists photos, files, voice messages and links, worked out on your device.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Keys | What they do |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + K | Search and commands |
| ↑ | In an empty message box: edit your last message |
| Esc | Close, or cancel a reply or edit |
| Enter / Shift + Enter | Send / new line |
These are listed in Settings › Accessibility. Search is available on every plan.