Can I search through past conversations?

Yes, from the search entry point in the dashboard sidebar. There are two kinds.

Message search goes through message content across all conversations. Use it when you remember the phrasing ("damaged heel", "coupon code", "exchange label") but not which ticket it belonged to. Customer search finds shoppers by customer-related fields, so you can open one person's conversation history from a single place.

Between them, that covers the two lookups support actually does: what did we say, and who is this person across tickets?

When you'll reach for it

• A returning customer references an old order issue and you want the prior thread before replying.
• A manager is auditing how agents handled a product-defect theme last month.
• You're checking whether the AI already answered a policy question for this shopper.

Run the query, open the matching conversation or customer, and you land in the full thread view with order and customer context still attached.

Getting better results

Search on distinctive strings: a SKU, error text, an email snippet. Generic words like "order" match everything. If message search returns several hits, open the most recent first and only dig further back for long-running issues. For customers who contact you often, pair search with pinning; search finds history, pinning keeps active work visible.

Search is available to staff with dashboard access and respects your store's normal Simple Chat permissions, like the rest of the inbox.