Been using Spotlight search on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad but curious how to customize your results? Part of what makes iOS Spotlight great is the fact that you can tailor the results to show up just the way you want them to. Read on for a quick and easy way to customize Spotlight to fit your own search needs.
I have a tendency to move apps around in folders and on my home screen quite often, so I’d rather just use Spotlight to find them than have to dig through folders and pages. Not only can you teach Spotlight what results are more important to you, you can also choose for certain items not to come up in search. I don’t like songs from my iPod to show up, so I’ve disabled that setting. Almost 100% of the time I use Spotlight, I’m looking for an app or an e-mail. I’ve set Spotlight to bring those results up before anything else.
Whatever your preferences are, telling Spotlight what content you want it to find only takes a few taps. I’m going to use the iPhone to demonstrate but the process to customize Spotlight on the iPad is exactly the same.
- Open Settings.
- Tap General.
- Tap Spotlight Search.
- You’ll see an editable list like below. Simply drag the type of results you want in order of how you want them. Anything you don’t want to show up, simply uncheck it.
That’s all there is to it. Spotlight will now filter your results based on the criteria you’ve specified. If you’ve never tried this before, give it a shot and let us know if it makes Spotlight more useful for you.
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