ChatGPT Unified Search: One Bar Across Chats, Projects, Files and Images

Key Takeaways

• Search scope moved from one conversation to the whole account. This is the substantive change — previously you could only search within an open chat, so old work was effectively unreachable once it scrolled out of reach.
• Four filter types: chats, files, projects, and images. You can jump straight to one category instead of scanning a mixed result list.
• Available on web, iPhone and Android — not a desktop-only rollout.
• Projects are the multiplier. A Project bundles files, custom instructions, memory and chats around one topic or client; everything inside it becomes searchable and filterable as a unit.
• The practical pattern is one Project per client or per long-running topic, with research, reports and reference documents uploaded as you go — so the archive compounds rather than scattering across loose chats.