WhatsApp is working on a new search shortcut for iPhone that could make it much faster to find messages inside long conversations. The shortcut would appear directly in the chat when users scroll up, letting them enter search mode without opening the chat’s info screen.
The feature was spotted in WhatsApp beta for iOS 26.31.10.70 and is still under development. It has not yet been made available to beta testers, so it remains unclear when WhatsApp plans to release it more broadly.
WhatsApp’s New Search Shortcut Appears While Scrolling
Currently, iPhone users have to open a chat’s info screen by tapping the contact or group name at the top of the conversation, then select the search option. That works, but it adds an extra step and takes users away from the conversation.
WhatsApp is testing a more direct approach. A new search button will appear at the bottom of the chat when users scroll up through older messages. Tapping it would immediately activate the existing in-chat search feature.
The button is designed to appear contextually rather than remain visible all the time. When users scroll up, it appears alongside the option to return to the latest messages. Once they scroll back to the bottom of the conversation, the search shortcut disappears.
This should be particularly useful in large group chats or conversations that contain months or years of messages. Instead of navigating through the chat settings to search for a specific message, users could start a search directly from the conversation.
WhatsApp’s In-Chat Search Button Is Still in Development
The new shortcut is currently being developed for WhatsApp on iPhone and is not available to beta testers yet. WhatsApp has not announced when it will begin rolling out the feature or whether the final version will work exactly as it does in testing.
For now, iPhone users will need to continue using the existing chat info menu to search for messages within a conversation. The new shortcut could eventually make that process considerably quicker once WhatsApp releases it in a future update.
