The transition from Hangouts to Google Chat was a lot less bumpy than I expected, though it took ages. Now that many of us have moved over, we have a steady influx of new features to look forward to, including today’s development. Google is rolling out filters for search in Google Chat to make it easier to find what you need, starting with the Android app.

The feature is already live in my testing, allowing you to trim down search results to target things like certain conversations/rooms, dates, whether or not you’re mentioned, and details like links or attachments. If you’re used to searching in services like Slack, all this will make perfect sense.

Above: Where the new filters live in search. Below: Filters in action. 

The UI is pretty simple, with a side-scrolling bubbly bar of options just below the search field once you’ve started a search, above your results. Tap the sort of restrictions you’d like to add to your search to help pare things down, and you can make finding a specific message or file pretty simple and fast. And this isn’t just for Workspace customers; it’s live for everyone, including regular old folks like you and me that made the trip from Hangouts.

Like we said, he new feature is already there for Google Chat on Android in the current version, but it’s not available on iOS or the web interface just yet — expect that in July.