[Feature] Support date searches directly from the main search bar (like Google Photos)

[laneyweb]

I have searched the existing feature requests, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate request.

• Yes

The feature

Hi team,

First off, huge thank you for Immich—it's been an incredible project to use.

One thing I run into often coming from Google Photos is trying to search for a specific date directly in the main search bar (e.g. typing something like Sep 20 2023, September 2023, or 2023-09-20).

Right now, doing that feeds the date into Smart Search / CLIP, so instead of pulling up photos taken on that day, it treats the date as a visual prompt and shows a "best guess" (calendar pages, autumn scenery, random text matches, etc.).

To actually find pictures from that day, you have to click into the search options, open the date filter, and set the range manually. It works, but it breaks the flow when you just want a quick keyboard-driven search.

It would be awesome if the search bar could automatically recognize common date formats and filter by the photo's timestamp directly. Even better down the road would be handling hybrid searches like beach July 2023, where it filters the date on the database side and uses CLIP for the subject.

Alternatively, even having search prefix shortcuts like date:2023-09-20 right in the text bar would save a lot of clicks.

Curious to hear what others think or if this is something on the roadmap!

Platform

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

[bo0tzz]

#7264