Search mail by contact
After signing in, select the mailbox whose mail you want to search. Mail access and at least one allowed search engine are required. The contact source also follows your current contact permissions.
- Type a name, email address, or phone number into Mail search.
- Select a contact suggestion. The interface automatically highlights the first selectable result. Enter selects it.
- Add other people if needed, then choose OR or AND in Filters → From.
- Start the search. A second Enter after contact selection starts it.
The field shows readable contact chips and search words. Filters → Advanced expression shows the complete expression for copying or editing. See advanced expression syntax for Boolean operators, quoted values, and date conditions.
People and address groups
A selected person contributes all recorded email addresses. People with the same name remain separate results. A contact without an email appears, but you cannot select it. Saved searches retain the addresses captured at selection time. Later contact edits do not rewrite that saved condition.
| Mode | Meaning for one message |
|---|---|
| OR | Any selected person can be the sender. |
| AND | One selected person must be the sender. Every other selected person must appear in CC. |
To/BCC recipients, conditions met by different messages, or an unrelated sender do not satisfy AND. This is message matching, not a search for all participants across a conversation.
Exact addresses
senderaddress: and ccaddress: compare complete addresses without case sensitivity. Special address characters are literal. Text, accent, case, and wildcard settings do not change address equality. These operators require search version 2. Version 1 returns a validation error.
For a conceptual description, let Si represent one person's sender-address OR group. Let Ci represent that person's CC-address OR group. AND combines them as (S1 OR S2 …) AND (S1 OR C1) AND (S2 OR C2) …. These placeholders describe the logic. They are not search syntax.
For two contacts with one address each, the equivalent copyable expression is:
(senderaddress:"alex@example.com" OR senderaddress:"sam@example.com") AND (senderaddress:"alex@example.com" OR ccaddress:"alex@example.com") AND (senderaddress:"sam@example.com" OR ccaddress:"sam@example.com")
The full expression has a 500-character limit. An oversized selection or mode change shows an error and retains the previous valid state. The visual editor does not reinterpret manually written complex conditions. A manually written sender: remains text matching, not exact address equality.
Search feedback
Filters uses the same mailbox contact source as the main field. It also contains the OR/AND switch, history picker, engine status, rerun, and save controls. History shows readable condition chips.
A blue border moves around the field during a search. Its tooltip says Search running. Reduced motion uses a static border. On mobile, search occupies its own row and chips wrap. If suggestions fail, type again after checking mailbox access. See text matching for pattern limits.