How To Customize Your Spotlight Search Results
by Dom Esposito
August 26, 2012
Whether you’re new to iOS, or just want to pick up some useful tips and tricks, we're here to help. This is iOS Advice.
Spotlight search on an iOS device is a helpful feature that allows you to filter through songs, emails, contacts, reminders, and more by entering the first few letters of its name.
Spotlight automatically categorizes the search results by app, but sometimes it’s filled with unwanted items. If you’d like get rid of these undesired results, there are a few customization options available.
To customize Spotlight search, watch the video or follow the steps below:
Step 1: Go into the Settings app on your device and tap on General.
Step 2: Next, scroll down to Spotlight Search and tap on it. You’ll now be presented with a list of categories that may show up when performing a search.
Step 3: To disable categories from appearing in Spotlight, tap on the undesired items in the list to deselect them.
Step 4: You can also rearrange the priority of a category in Spotlight search. To do this, tap and hold on the bars to the right of an item and drag them up or down within the list. The categories at the top of the list will appear first in Spotlight when performing a search.
When you’re finished customizing these options, you can exit the Settings app and begin enjoying your refined search results in Spotlight.
Now that you’ve learned how to customize your Spotlight search results, if there’s something else you’d like to see on iOS Advice, please let us know. Send us an email with your question or comment and we might feature your suggestion in a future article. If you need a little more advice, check out our other helpful tutorials.