Twitter/X has always been a great social media site, but a horrible archive. Today we’ll go over the advanced search to help you find the exact posts you’re looking for.
Each section has three parts: a brief explanation, an example with both what is put in each box and the resulting boolean/shortcuts, and the reason why that specific search is useful.
How To Find Advanced Search
The advanced search feature is only available on desktop, not mobile*, and even then, it is hidden away.
[* At least I've never been able to find it -- if you have, let me know!]
If you simply go to the search page, you will see a gear beside the search, but this is only your "Explore settings" not the advanced search.
To get to the advanced search, you must first do a standard search. Once you've done a standard search, the three dots to the right of the bar has three options: "Search settings," "Advanced search," and "Save search."
Today we'll just be looking at "Advanced search."
Words
All of these words
This is the equivalent to a standard search. The search will look for posts that have each of the words you put in here.
All of these words = QT art
Resulting search = QT art
This is a great search if you like QT challenges and will return 80% of them (sometimes people leave out “art” but most posts do have it).
This exact phrase
Putting a phrase in this box is the equivalent of a search using quotes. Instead of looking for each word, in any order or place, it will look for the words in this exact order, right next to each other.
All of these words = ai
This exact phrase = open call
Resulting search = ai “open call”
If you’d like to see your work in a gallery, this is the search for you. Open calls allow anyone to submit art, usually to an exhibit. You will get some results that are saying that AI isn’t accepted, but most of the results currently are AI-focused.
Any of these words
This is the OR box. It will look for each word independently and any posts with at least one will come up.
All of these words = ai
Any of these words = contest competition
Resulting search = ai (contest OR competition)
If you’re looking for contests or competition, this isn’t a bad place to start. You will, however, get many posts about the competition among the AIs and people who use AIs.
None of these words
The shorthand for this one is simply a - before the word. These are words you don’t want to see and is good for narrowing down your search.
All of these words = ai
Any of these words = contest competition
None of these words = gen:48 nft
Resulting search = ai (contest OR competition) -gen:48 -nft
Gen:48 just happened, so many people are posting their submissions. If I don’t want to see those when searching for contests and competitions, I can put “gen:48” here. Similarly, I might exclude NFT, crypto, or specific currencies if I am not interested in seeing contests involving them.
These hashtags
This is straightforward: it’s just a specific box for hashtags. It acts as an OR box and puts a hashtag in front of every word.
These hashtags = aiart aiartcommunity aiartwork aiartworks
Resulting search = (#aiart OR #aiartcommunity OR #aiartwork OR #aiartworks)
Many people just use one or two AI-art-related hashtags in their posts, so this box is a good way to cover as many as possible and cast a very wide AI art net.
Language
The default is “Any Language” but you can narrow it down to whatever specific language you wish.
Accounts
Now we really start narrowing things down. For these options, use the exact @Username but without the @. (Using an @ instead results in filters:links.)
From these accounts
This option specifies which account made the post(s) you're looking for. This includes both main posts and replies.
From these accounts = AethericaArt
Resulting search = (from:AethericaArt)
Got a specific post of your own you're searching for? Try entering your username here and fill in the other boxes with what you remember.
To these accounts
This is specifically looking for replies to posts of this account. Not replies from this account.
From these accounts = DMJeffChronicle
To these accounts = MagikChance
Resulting search = (from:DMJeffChronicle) (to:MagikChance)
Did someone leave you an awesome comment but you can't seem to find it? This is a great option for that. If you put their username in the "From" box and yours in the "To" then the search will bring up just their replies to your posts.
Mentioning these accounts
This is a search for tags. If you want to find a post someone specific was tagged in, used this. It acts as an OR so it will return all results with at least one name in them.
Mentioning these accounts = AnetteElbeck foxtrotfrog TridIsntAName
Resulting search = (@AnetteElbeck OR @foxtrotfrog OR @TridIsntAName)
Alternatively, if you don't trust notifications to display everything you've been tagged in, try putting your own username here and see what comes up.
Filters
Here's a quick rundown of the filters and their shortcuts.
Replies (On):
Include replies and original posts = On by default.
Only show replies = filter:replies
Replies (Off) = -filter:replies
Links (On):
Include posts with links = On by default
Only show posts with links = filter:links
Links (Off) = -filter:links
Replies off is a great option for finding main thread posts only while Links off may be helpful if your search would otherwise have alot of spam.
Engagement
There are boxes for entering a minimum number of replies, likes, and reposts. If you're looking for posts that preformed well, this is perfect for you. For instance, you can use this option to see only posts that crossed a certain threshold so you can see what has worked in the past.
Here's the shortcuts, using 100 in each box as an example:
Minimum replies = min_replies:100
Minimum likes = min_faves:100
Minimum reposts = min_retweets:100
Dates
This is fairly self explanatory, but extremely useful if you're trying to track down a specific post and have an idea of when it was posted.
From = January 1, 2024
To = February 1, 2024
Resulting search = until:2024-01-01 since:2024-02-01
Conclusion
I hope this helps you more efficiently search X/Twitter in the future!
If you would be interested in a search shortcuts cheatsheet, let me know, and I can see about drawing one up.
Do you know of any features not included here? Let us know in the comments!
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