Search in the Genuin SDK
Learn what members can search for inside the Genuin SDK, where the search screen opens, and what your app needs for it to appear.
Members search your brand's posts, communities, groups, and people from a search screen inside the SDK's full-screen experience. Search ships in the UI module on Android and iOS and opens from a button at the top of the feed.
There's nothing to configure. No SDK method opens search, no parameter changes it, and Brand Control Center has no search settings. What you control is whether the UI module is in your app and which views you show.
Where search opens
| Platform | The search button appears in | Requires |
|---|---|---|
| Android 2.1.5 | The full-screen view of a standard wall whose feed source is Brand Feed, and the home feed that the deprecated GenuinSDK.loadSDK(context) opens | com.begenuin:ui:2.1.5 |
| iOS 2.1.5 | The full-screen view of a standard wall whose feed source is Brand Feed | GenuinUI 2.1.5, registered with GenuinUI.shared.initialize() at launch |
| React Native 3.0.3 | StandardWall with a Brand Feed embed, and on Android the HomeFeed component | Nothing extra; the package pins the UI module on both platforms |
| Flutter 1.0.1 | On Android, the feed screens and the HomeFeed widget of the native 1.1.9.3 SDK the plugin wraps | Nothing extra; the native SDK includes search |
| Web SDK 2.0.6 | Nowhere. Embeds have no search; visitors search on your community website instead. | — |
Carousels, grids, full-screen feed embeds, placements, and standard walls of a single community or group have no search button.
Without the UI module, the button still appears, but tapping it shows your brand's unsupported-feature message: a toast on Android and an alert on iOS. Module setup is in Integrate the Genuin Android SDK and Integrate the Genuin iOS SDK.
What members can search
| Result type | Matched against | Tapping a result opens |
|---|---|---|
| Posts | The post's description, its AI-generated description, and its transcript | The post, in its group's feed |
| Communities | Name, handle, and description | The community screen |
| Groups | Name and description | The group screen |
| People | Name, nickname, and bio | The member's profile |
Search covers your brand's content. Genuin scopes each query to your brand and the sibling brands linked to it.
How a search runs
- Recent searches: When a signed-in member opens search, the screen lists their recent searches. They can delete one or clear them all. Guests start with an empty screen.
- Suggestions: As the member types, the SDK fetches suggestions for each change. It lists matching people, communities, and groups, up to five of each, ordered by match score. Tapping a suggestion opens that profile, community, or group directly.
- Results: Submitting the text opens the results in five tabs: Top, then one tab each for posts, communities, groups, and people.
- Ranking: Genuin returns up to 10 results of each type. Top orders the four types by their best match, so a query that closely matches a community name lists communities first.
- History: For signed-in members, each search and each opened result is saved to their recent searches.
Posts, communities, and groups are matched two ways at once. One is the words in the fields above; the other is semantic similarity between text embeddings of the query and the content. People are matched on the words only, including partial words at the end of the query. Results below a minimum match score are dropped.
For example, a member who types trail running can get a community whose description mentions marathon training, because the two phrases are close in meaning. A member who types jo can get people whose name or nickname starts with "jo".
Ranking doesn't use the member's interests, follows, or watch history. Two members who search for the same text see the same results.
Signed-in and guest members
Guests can search, see suggestions, and open any result. Saving and showing recent searches needs a signed-in member. Actions on a result, such as joining a community or reacting to a post, prompt for sign-in as they do anywhere else in the SDK; see Choose how members sign in to the Genuin SDK.
Limitations
- No API: No public method on any SDK opens search or passes it a query, and the search screen sends no callbacks to your app.
- Brand Feed standard walls only: Embeds of other types and sources don't show the search button.
- UI module required: Without
com.begenuin:uiorGenuinUI, search shows your unsupported-feature message. - No pagination: Each tab shows at most 10 results for the query. Members refine the text to see others.
- No web search in embeds: The Web SDK 2.0.6 has no search screen.
- Not personalized: Ranking uses only the query and your brand.
