Google Drive now has “Search Chips”, a new feature that makes it easier (and faster) to look for older files that are buried. This addition is available to all who use Google Drive, though was previously tested by a few in November 2021.
In the announcement, Google says “When searching in Drive, users often use a few key words to try and locate the file they’re looking for, such as “marketing plan” or “sales report,” which may return results that are too broad.” You can narrow down your search results by location, file type, date modified, people, tasks, and shared labels.
The GIF above shows how you can use search chips by typing a word into Drive’s search bar as you normally would. You can then use search chips. Below the search bar, there are six dropdown menus for search chips: Location, File Type, People, Last Modified, Title Only, and To Do. These are the six search chips that you can choose from. If you click on one of these menus, you’ll be able to filter your search results by Anywhere in Drive, My Drive, Shared with me, Starred, and Trash. This will help you quickly find the documents, images, videos that you’re looking for.
You might like Search Chips if you use Google Drive a lot. It’s currently rolling out, so expect it soon. Go to your Google Drive right now and check if the Search Chips has been enabled. But it’s possible that you won’t see it till later.
Google previously buried Drive’s search filters in a dropdown menu in the search bar. Putting them above your search results should help find and manage them. Google added search chips to Gmail in 2020. It’s wonderful to see search chips in Drive, where documents may easily become disorganised.
