Advanced search on Twitter
Tags: twitter, search, advanced
Published: 2021-02-07 10:11:52

There is [an advanced search](https://twitter.com/search-advanced) feature on Twitter. Clicking on this, you see a nice popup and text boxes to fill in.

After you fill in these boxes, Twitter populates the normal search bar with the appropriate text to implement those more advanced features. I couldn't find a list of how you can directly write out these searches, so here I write out how to do advanced Twitter searches without using that popup.

## All of these words

The most basic of the searches. Type in all the words you want to be found anywhere in a tweet.

```
what's happening
```

## Exact phrase

In contrast with the previous search, here you can be specific on the exact placement of words using quotes.

```
"happy hour"
```

## Any of these words

This is similar to "All of these words", except these tweets don't have to include all the words at the same time. A tweet could contain one, two, or more of these words.

```
cats OR dogs
```

*Note*, the parentheses around searches will ensure your search is isolated from other searches. For example,

```
"happy hour" (cats OR dogs)
```

## None of these words

You can find tweets without specific words using the minus sign.

```
-dogs
```

## Hashtags

To search a hashtag, simply write it out with the hashtag in front of the word(s).

```
#ThrowbackThursday
```

## Language

Use the [two-letter code for the language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes) to search for those tweets.

```
lang:es hola
```

## Account direction of tweet

You can search for tweets from and to particular accounts by using the `from:` and `to:` keywords.

```
from:twitter
```

```
to:twitter
```

## Mentioning accounts

Simply add the Twitter account with the `@` symbol in front.

```
@Twitter
```

## Miscellaneous filters

Without and with replies.

```
-filter:replies
filter:replies
```

Without and with links.

```
-filter:links
filter:links
```

## Engagement thresholds

Minimum number of replies, favorites,

```
min_replies:42
min_faves:42
min_retweets:42
```

## Date ranges

Search within specific time intervals using `since:` and `until:`.

```
since:2014-06-14 until:2016-05-15
```

## Cheatsheet

```
what's happening                   # all of the words somewhere
"happy hour"                       # extract phrasing
cats OR dogs                       # any combination of words
"happy hour" (cats OR dogs)        # combine search types
-dogs                              # tweets not containing words
#ThrowbackThursday                 # hashtag searching
lang:es hola                       # non-English tweets
from:twitter                       # tweets from an account
to:twitter                         # tweeting at an account
@Twitter                           # they mention accounts
-filter:replies                    # filter out replies
filter:replies                     # filter for replies
-filter:links                      # filter out links
filter:links                       # filter for links
min_replies:42                     # minimum replies
min_faves:42                       # minimum favorites
min_retweets:42                    # minimum re-tweets
since:2014-06-14 until:2016-05-15  # time ranges
```

I hope this proves helpful and makes searching quicker for you.