July 28, 2014 at 7:27 p.m. PST
Spotlight Search is one of the most useful iPhone features. With Spotlight, you can launch apps and search for just about everything on the iPhone and web.
Spotlight Search first appeared on Mac OS X 10.4 back in 2005. The feature allows for system-wide searching of content. Spotlight is very fast, as it uses a virtual index of all content on the system. It can even search the New Oxford American Dictionary and perform calculations. Spotlight for iOS brings many of these features to Apple’s mobile platform, making the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch even easier to use. Let’s take a look Spotlight in depth.
Use Spotlight to Launch Apps
Let’s face it, there are a lot of iOS apps. If you’re like me, you have too many apps to keep them organized. You can place apps in folders and arrange your home screens. You can also arrange your home screens in iTunes. Even if your home screens are well-organized, the actual process of launching an app can be difficult when you have hundreds of apps. I recommend not organizing your iPhone home screens at all. You may wish to place frequently used apps on the dock and first home screen. I prefer to keep my first home screen clear of all icons. There is an easier way to launch apps — Spotlight.
Before launching an app with Spotlight, make sure that apps will appear at the top of Spotlight search results. Tap on Settings > General > Spotlight Search. Make sure that Applications is checked and is at the top of the list. If not, tap Applications to select it and use the “handle” on the right to slide it to the top of the list. This will ensure that Applications will be at the top of Spotlight Search results.
If you plan on using Spotlight to launch apps, you may want to uncheck other items in the list. Spotlight is a little faster if it is only searching for apps. You can search for contacts, music, or other content using their corresponding apps. That said, the performance difference is surprisingly small, because Spotlight is so efficient. Everything is indexed, so it produces results surprisingly fast. Scaling results back to one item will provide a noticeable performance boost on an older device, such as an iPhone 4. Spotlight also seems to work faster with an empty home screen.
Launching an app with Spotlight is very easy. In fact, I launch most apps this way, even if they are on my dock or home screen. It becomes a reflex. Simply swipe your finger down on any home screen. Don’t begin the swipe from the top of the screen, as that will pull down Notification Center. Once you see the search field, type in the first few letters of the app. Spotlight learns based on usage. If you use an app frequently, simply typing in the first letter will display the app as the top result. Finally, launch the app by tapping it in the search results. This is much faster and easier than fiddling with home screens and folders.
I don’t even bother with arranging my home screens anymore. If you don’t like a messy look, simply drag your icons off the first home screen. You will have a nice, clean home screen. You might want to put frequently used apps on the first home screen. I personally prefer a clean, unobstructed view of my background wallpaper. I launch every app using Spotlight. I also use Spotlight to launch apps on my Mac.
If you go for an icon-free home screen, you might want to turn off the parallax effect in iOS 7. Without icons on the screen, the visual effect is useless. It will just slow down your device. You can turn off the parallax effect by tapping Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion. Then turn Reduce Motion on. This will also remove the zooming effect when apps are launched and closed, which will also speed up your device.
Prioritize Search Results
Using Spotlight to launch apps might not be ideal for everyone. If you are a salesperson, your priority may be to find contacts. If you work with email a lot, it may be helpful to search through your emails. You could be a DJ and need to find music. It all depends on your priorities. You can search content with the corresponding app. Configuring Spotlight to find these items may increase productivity, as it is readily accessible.
To change search priorities and activate items, go to Settings > General > Spotlight. From here, you can check or uncheck items. Drag items by their handle to prioritize them. Items at the top will be listed first in Spotlight. If speed is important, make sure only a few items are checked. The fewer items Spotlight has to search, the faster you will get results. Spotlight is fast regardless of the number of items, because your content is indexed ahead of time.
Protect Your Privacy
If you don’t lock your iPhone, keep in mind that Spotlight could produce embarrassing results such as emails or videos. If you have embarrassing or mature content on your iPhone, you may want to omit these from search results. Once again, tap on Settings > General > Spotlight Search and uncheck anything that may have sensitive content. Even if you lock your iPhone, you could be in a situation where you are searching for something while someone is looking at your device.
What Else Can Spotlight Find?
Spotlight can do a lot more than search your content and launch apps. It is a great way to search the web and Wikipedia. This works better if you only have one searchable item, as web and Wikipedia results will appear at the bottom.
Other Spotlight Tips
If you have selected only one searchable item to keep the results fast and uncluttered, you can always turn on a search item temporarily to do a quick search. For the most part, it is easier to use the search functionality built into an app. For example, if you want to find a particular song, just use the search functionality in Music. Some may prefer the way Spotlight presents results. It is clean and uniform.
Make sure to revisit Spotlight Search settings after an iOS upgrade. Updates to iOS can often introduce new search items, and these may be turned on by default.
You may notice that your iPhone is slow after upgrading to a new version of iOS. This is partly because Spotlight is re-indexing all of your content. Your iPhone will return to peak performance once this has finished. This does not occur with every iOS update, but will typically occur with major updates, especially if the update adds new Spotlight Search items.
If you use Spotlight on your iPad, be careful where you tap your finger. If you tap outside of the search results, on the home screen, it will close Spotlight. This isn’t the case on the iPhone, as Spotlight results take up the entire width of the screen.
You can use Spotlight to do calculations, however, unlike with Mac OS X, it isn’t directly supported. Simply pull down Spotlight and enter an equation like “2 + 2 =”, then tap Search Web. You will see the solution presented in your search engine of choice. While this might not seem elegant, it is slightly more convenient than launching the calculator. iOS 8 will feature custom widgets in Notification Center, so you can add a calculator widget for easy access.
Spotlight is simple, elegant and extremely useful. If you have any tips on how to use Spotlight, please add a comment below.
UPDATES:
iOS 8 introduces new features to Spotlight search. Spotlight Suggestions uses your location to provide predictive search results. This new feature displays information from Wikipedia, the App Store, iTunes, and even suggests locations near you.
Spotlight now offers Bing integration. Users can now view search results from Bing directly within Spotlight, making it even easier to search the web.
Unfortunately, Google is not integrated directly into Spotlight, due to the rivalry between the two corporations. You can still use Spotlight to search with Google. If Google is your default search engine, simply type a search query into Spotlight and then tap Search Web. Google search results will appear in Safari.