Search chips in Google Drive help update and display search results faster

04/04/2022

Table of contents

What’s changing

In November 2021, Google announced a beta for search chips in Google Drive, which makes it easier for users to find relevant files faster and eliminates the need to perform multiple searches or sort through irrelevant results. Search chips are now generally available for all users.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why it’s important

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.

Now, after a query is entered, users can use search chips to surface more relevant results based on:

File type, such as Google Docs, PDF or image
People
Location, such as a shared drive or specific folder
When the document was last modified File titles only
Labels are shared
Tasks

Additionally, you’ll also notice various other improvements:

You'll see spelling suggestions along with search chips
You can clear search chips on their own, or together with the query
Additional date options for the “Last modified” chip

Google hopes the search chips make it easier to narrow your search results and find your important files faster.

Getting started

Admins: No action needed.
End users: This feature will be automatically available. Simply enter a search query and select one or multiple chips to further drill down results. Visit the Help Center to learn more about finding files in Google Drive..