Phone Search is a Windows Phone 8 and 7.x app that lets you search your calendar and contacts from a central location.
You can search by keyword, address, phone book, date and all the details of your calendar and contacts will be scoured. If your search yields no results, you will be given the option to search the web via Bing. Your last ten searches can be saved and search terms can be memorized so that it can be shown when the app restarts.
Due to limitations with Windows Phone, Phone Search can't search emails, text messages, music files, to do lists, or apps.
Phone Search is a fairly simple app for your Windows Phone but if you're searching for an appointment or need to match a phone number with a contact, it's not too shabby of an app.
Phone Search is a free, ad-supported app that you can find here in the Windows Phone Store.
Thanks, Mark, for the tip!
Reader comments
Phone Search, query your Windows Phone contacts and calendar
I'm not really missing anything on windows phone 8. To me its perfect. After using iPhone and Android, I really don't miss a thing to be honest. I can't see myself going to another OS.
I think it's a pity and shame for us to need such an app.
Hmmm..... i can't find the app if i search in Store on my L920. And if i scan the QR i get an url with error... something wrong? :-)
Please vote for the the Nokia Open Song Project. http://pv.webbyawards.com/nominees/interactive-advertising-media/website...
Find My Music can search for music, this can't really be an OS limitation on Windows Phone 8.
Yes but Find My Music is painfully slow to load and when you find your track, it seems to take a while to load, in my experience... Compared to the instant results of other platforms
I was referring to this sentence in the article: "Due to limitations with Windows Phone, Phone Search can't search emails, text messages, music files, to do lists, or apps"
By the way, on my phone (8X) Find My Music works well and very fast, but I have only a few GB of music on it, maybe that's the reason.
Yes, when you have 12GB of music on an SD card like me, its not fast at all sadly... Heres hoping 8.1 improves on this. Lumia 620 here.
Wow, this app must be three lines of code:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/jj207071(v=vs.105).aspx
Could the blue update give us this function built in?
And if windows phone didn't have these limitations or you don't want them, you have Android. Just for those people complaining about these limitations. Windows phone can def be better, but it is what it is now, including those limitations. And the platform has its own strengths regardless of them.
This is useful occasionally. Def downloading. Thanks for posting!
JustBTW... AngryNil... I just discovered that there is an option to upgrade to an ad-free version "Phone Search Pro" within the free app.
Just had a quick play with it. I choose to keep quite a lot of info in the notes section of my contacts. It does a really great job of hunting down that. I find that a real bonus to the particular way I work.
WP is trying to be different from iOS to the point of making some of the basic features non-existent. Hey at least we're different ......
MS should bump up the bing search, why it has dedicated key if you can only search is from web, the search key must be universal as like the search in the charm bar in windows 8.
Here's to hoping that is in the works
My hunch is a lot of the things that is on Windows 8 that won't hinder the WP8 experience will most likely be ported to WP8, but that's my guess. Like some of the customizations you can do, the universal search, etc... I am almost certain universal search will be there though because they implemented it pretty well in Windows 8, but then again I am just speculating. Hoping for the best though :)
Well actually i kinda liked the spotlight search in ios, served like a centralized search results page. The search button should be used for that, but thats just my thoughts.
Indeed. Agree with you. As an ex-iPhone user, swiping to the right to get universal phone search, whether to find a song, contact, or app is something i miss terribly. Can't believe it's not baked into the OS...
I'm still asking if you guys are experiencing any volume issues with your phones, mainly the 920. Does your volume drop down after your phone has sat for awhile, and cannot be raised to a louder level??
Never notice this.
Looks nice. Paid, ad-free version please!
George, are you investing in the Canadian dollar? What's up with the loonie and twoonie?
All those search options should be baked into the OS already. Regardless, still nice to have an app that enables some of that functionality.
Reminds me somewhat of webos's universal search.
No this isn't even close.
That's why I said somewhat
Nice app
Today such a slow news day lol :(
+1
+1, I feel like a fiend for wpc news.
I hope this isn't a precursor for the week in WP news!!
What really did you expect for a Sunday?
I'm getting tired of reading 'due to the limitations of windows phone...'
Well don't be too bothered about the limitations stated here they don't affect productivity much. And about the app I don't see a point in using it and that too with ad's, no thank you. Why is this even a news???
You're not alone. MS is lucky I don't trust Google, can't stand iPhone, and am not desperate enough for BB10.
I love windows phone 8 but for me is an incomplete os compare to ios or android and yesterday I just switched to iPhone 5 and I will keep my Lumia 920 and wait for next update to windows os to see how great can be :(
All phones (and things for that matter) have limitations
I had the same exact thought ricardios. Why are we limited in so many areas? I know this OS can handle it and if it can't, fix it so it can.
I don't consider this a limitation really. Do you really want third party applications to have access to your email and text messages?
Agree, it's limited by design. For safety reason or others such as battery life. My friend use an iPad and he said there's much limitation in the OS.
Exactly. It's a privacy and security safeguard.
Universal search would be nice. But if does come, it will likely be part of the OS itself, and apps will be able to use that instead of having direct access.
Google reads through all Gmail emails, millions of people don't care. People willfully give an app their banking logins for convenience. People give third parties access to their photos, location info, and contacts all the time - even on WP. I don't think it's MS trying to protect us. It's just another area where Microsoft is behind. Anyway, we're all adults here. Can't we decide for ourselves if we want to give certain access to third parties or not? Do we need a big brother to protect us like this if that is indeed the case?
MS have said from day one that these limitations are there by design so that apps cannot abuse the phones. They are not saying that there would be no legitimate cases for this functionality, but unfortunately, we live in a world where people like to spam and scam. How would you feel if an app was unknowingly sending strange texts to all you contacts.
In fact, the functionality here has opened up compared to the initial release. When they do unlock things, they have to make sure it can't have a negative impact.
As is the case on a PC, you're crazy if you install a program from an untrusted source. Are you suggesting that Microsoft no longer allow Outlook plug-ins because it's possible someone might create a spyware plug-in? Maybe you need a babysitter, but I don't.
A phone is different from a PC - But while we are on it, the main reasons why Windows gets slted is due to user error.
iPhone's main reason for sucess was due to making everything simple and fool proof - Which basically means pulling out all functionality and locking it down so that the phone always behaves as designed.
Unfortunately, we all live in a world where a lot of people do install things from untrusted sources becuase they know no better (I am not sying that either you or I do).
The only mobile OS's that will allow this level of openness are those that don't really exist anymore (Maemo/Meego were great examples of flexibility). These never took off because the general public found them too complex due to the openness. Android has succeeded, mostly due to being a cheaper alternative to iOS, but it has sufferend many issues from being too open, and received a lot of bad press for the fact that there is so many bad apps available for it.
Although I completely understand your frustration, these limitations are put there for a reason, and there is probably very little we will be able to do about it - At the end of the day, if the OS is to work it has to appeal to the masses.