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Finding anyone fast is essential for address books with hundreds, let alone thousands of names.
The Search options menu on the left lets you select different types of searches. The sandwich icon on the right of the search field opens this menu.
The always-on microphone icon enables the hands-free search of names. Because the speech-to-text translation of names is often imprecise, this search is proximity-based (i.e., phonetic, fuzzy, sound-alike).
Since Skrol supports multiple address books from different connected accounts, all of them are included in a search unless, optionally, you exclude some.
The next six slides explain and illustrate all available search types.
To start, select a desired option from the menu illustrated in the previous slide or tap the Search field, and the app opens the last active keyboard.
As you begin typing, the app will show matching names starting with the first letter. The matching entries are highlighted in yellow color.
The search results will keep narrowing down along with each new letter you type. The list will turn blank if no matching words or numbers are found.
Once you see the desired contact in the list, tap to open its folder. You can swipe the record left or right and use a long or double-tap, just like in the regular list.
To exist Search, tap the “X” icon on the right side of the search field.
The Search all fields is a default option. It is similar to a Google-type search because it will search through the entire content of each folder.
In the example on the left, we were looking for a car dealer. As we started typing C-a-r, the app found all fields matching the first three letters of the word "car," including Carolyn, ...car.com, Car dealer, cars.rent.com, and similar others.
The search will narrow down to the most relevant content in real time as you keep typing.
All iPhone-compatible contact databases are structured into fields, such as first name, last name, company name, position, email, phone number, postal code, and others. The iPhone recognizes over 30 distinct fields, and all available fields are searchable individually.
To start the Search, tap the sandwich menu inside the search field, select the Search by field command, tap the desired field, and enter the search word as in the previous section.
The illustration on the left shows the search of the Phone field by the 201 and 973 area codes. All 49 matching contacts are presented in the list below.
To search throughout all available fields, tap the All fields option. It is first in the list of fields.
The "Match all words" search is equivalent to the "AND" search. The AND operator finds all contacts with the words "Attorney" AND "New York." Both search words must be present to result in a valid search.
As with the OR search in the previous section, to find all Attorneys in New York, you type "Attorney, New York," which is illustrated on the left.
The web version of Skrol offers additional search options that aren't practical or possible to implement in the confines of the mobile phone display.
Anyone exposed to programming is familiar with the AND and OR search operators.
The OR operator finds all contacts with either the first term (Jim), the second (James), the third (Jimmy), or all three.
Since Skrol isn't intended for programmers, we use the "Match any world" title instead of the "OR search." And instead of typing "Jim OR James OR Jimmy," you will use commas in place of OR: "Jim, James, Jimmy".
This example on the left shows all matching contacts whose names contain Jim, or James, or Jimmy.
To find anyone without typing, tap the microphone icon inside the search field and say the name, such as Alice.
Depending on how well iPhone recognizes your diction, the app will find and display a list of all phonetically-close names, such as Alicia, Alecia, Alica, Alicea, Alisa, Alisha, Alissa, Alecia, Allycia, Allysia, Alysia.
This type of search is also known as proximity, phonetic, or fuzzy because it doesn’t require the exact spelling of the search word.
The example on the left shows the two records found in response to dictating "Konstantin" because the iPhone's speech-to-text algorithm transcribes it as "Constantine" — a Greek/Italian spelling of that name in Slavic countries, such as Ukraine, where Konstantin was born and raised.
The Search history option displays all found contacts you've opened. The list is presented in a familiar list format, except the second line of the record in the list will display the date and time of the search.
All of the familiar list commands are supported except for the Delete command. When used in this context, it will only delete the contact from the search list.
The app will store all searches for the past 30 days, starting with the last search on top of the list. To see the results in reverse (i.e., from the first search 30 days ago), tap the downward arrow at the end of the header.
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