Bolt In-App Search Experience
Written by Benji Weiser
Updated at May 8th, 2025
Table of Contents
There are various aspects to consider when including search in your app and this article explains the options available to you.
App placement
Search can be included in your app in a few places
- As its own tab along the bottom
- Within your settings/account tab
- As an icon at the top right of the app toolbar
The Search card
We additionally support an option to place a search card within a timeline, which can then load results on the usual search tab, or in a dynamically loaded timeline.
Results
When a user searches for an article they will see how many results are available for their entered search term. This is a localisable and configurable string that will show below the search bar.
Search results show in a list which displays:
- The article title
- The article section (if it has one)
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The article image, which can be any of:
- The main article image
- The edition cover (if from an edition)
- A snapshot of the page
- Nothing
- The article summary - the standfirst if available, or part of the first paragraph
Filters and sorting
Out of the box we allow users to sort their results by most relevant or recent and filter them by date should they choose to.
In addition to the above sorting options, we can also add sorting options which would include any taxonomy that you have in the CMS, such as sections or authors.
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Timeframes
By default search will index and return all content that is currently in the app and has previously been in the app. However this can be adjusted to only return results for content that is currently in the app. There is also a setting which allows you to only return results after a specific date.
Duplicates
If a piece of content is in multiple collections, you can choose if only a single result should be returned for the search, or one per collection. The default is to show one, but each will show the different collection title on the result.
Protecting Access to content
In some cases, you may only want search to be available to certain users, based on their access level. We can configure search to only allow access if users are signed in or subscribed. If they are not then when they navigate to the search screen they will see a message informing them that search is only available to signed in users.
This can be controlled separately, per authentication type, meaning we can have separate rules for 3rd party authenticated users, store subscribes users, or users logging in with voucher codes.
Search and collection sets
In order for search to work correctly with collection sets, all content will need to be tagged into a set. Even if the content is supposed to be visible to all users.
This is because if you have sets enabled search will filter exclusively for content in your chosen set to avoid duplicates. If a piece of content isn't in a set, it won't show up. If it's in all sets then it'll show up once, correctly.
FAQs
Can anyone use search or is it for logged in users only?
By default everyone has access, but it is configurable and we can adjust search on your app to require a login token that users will automatically have if they are signed in or subscribed.
If an article is in multiple timelines, how will it appear in search?
By default if an article is in multiple timelines it will only appear once in search. The result will be from the first time the article is processed in distribution. If desired, we can adjust the behaviour for an article to appear as many times as it appears in timelines.
If an article is no longer in the app, will it still be searchable?
Yes by default articles will remain in the search index indefinitely when they're no longer in the app timelines. If you'd like them to leave the search index when they leave the app let us know.