Search Like a Pro
To say that the search features in the previous versions of the Mac Messages app were weak would be an understatement. They were so bad, in fact, that many users turned to third-party apps and solutions just to do something that Apple had conspicuously dropped the ball on.
Fortunately, Big Sur improves this in a big way. Everything in indexed properly, and searches are almost instantaneous, letting you drill through multiple conversations across your entire conversation history, which, thanks to Apple’s Messages in the Cloud feature, could basically go back across multiple generations of iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
Clicking in the search box will also give you a quick summary of your most recent photos, locations, and documents across multiple conversations, and you can also search for any attachment by name, although messages hasn’t quite reached the point of offering content-aware search quite yet.