How to Use Advanced Search

Shared Contacts for Gmail® levels up your contact sharing through the advanced search feature. It allows you to do an advanced search in Google Contacts and other integrated contact databases. Unlike the ordinary contact search bar, the advanced search allows users to specify which field should the query be searched from. 

There are several ways to use the advanced search feature:

A. Find contacts from a specific field only

B. See a list of contacts excluding a particular keyword

C. Search contacts with no email, phone number, or other fields

The advanced contact search is organized into nine key sections:

  1. General
  2. Name
  3. Country
  4. State
  5. Company
  6. Job
  7. Department
  8. Email
  9. Phone

Each section includes three conditions:

  • Has the words
  • Does not have the words
  • Is empty (toggle button)

The advanced search feature lets you define specific conditions and group them in ways that act as filters, helping you identify the exact contacts you’re looking for. You can make your search narrow or wide, depending on your preference, by setting different conditions. 

A. Find contacts from a specific field only

Suppose you’re trying to find a lawyer named Taylor in your contacts. However, your contact list also includes a company called Taylor Industries. If you search for “Taylor lawyer” in Google Contacts, the results will show not only lawyers or individuals named Taylor but also all lawyers of Taylor Industries.

To narrow down the search and make the results more relevant, you can use the advanced search feature as follows:

1. Go to your Shared Contacts for Gmail® dashboard.

2. Click the advanced search icon () at the top right area of the screen.

3. Select the field where you want the query to be searched from. Scroll down to find other fields. 

4. Enter the desired characters or keywords in the “Has the words” field in the specific section you want to be searched. You can do this with one or more fields.

5. Click ‘search’ at the bottom of the advanced search screen. 

6. Now, all that fit the field/s will be shown, including the number of results.

B. See a list of contacts excluding a particular keyword

For instance, you need to search for lawyers in your contact list but want to exclude civil lawyers. Instead of manually filtering them out from the search results in Google Contacts, you can use the advanced search feature in Shared Contacts for Gmail® to set a limitation on your query.

Follow these steps to do so:

1. Go to your Shared Contacts for Gmail® dashboard.

2. Click the advanced search icon () at the top right area of the screen.

3. Select the field where you want the query to be found. Scroll down to find other fields. 

4. Type in the “has the words” the set you want to see. Then, type in the field “does not have the words” the limits you want in place. You can enter other limiting words from different sections.

5. Click ‘search’ at the bottom of the advanced search screen. 

6. Now, the search shows all that fit the field(s) and includes the number of results.

C. Search contacts with no email, phone number, or other fields

For example, you need to clean up your contact database from all the contacts without an email address. You can do so by following these steps:

1. Go to your Shared Contacts for Gmail® dashboard.

2. Click the advanced search icon () at the top right area of the screen.

3. Select the field where you want the query to be found. Scroll down to find other fields. 

4. Toggle the “is empty” switch.

5. Click ‘search’ at the bottom of the advanced search screen. 

6. Now, the search displays only the results that match your criteria and shows the total number of matches.

Now that you have done your advanced search in Google Contacts and other integrated contact databases, you may save or share the result with your team.