Gmail search does not correctly handle underscores in subject lines

[farzanadirah]

Hello Google Team,

I’ve discovered that the Gmail search operator subject: does not correctly find emails when the subject line contains an underscore (_). The search engine appears to treat the underscore as a space or ignores it, leading to no results or incorrect results.

To reproduce the issue:

1. Have an email with the subject line:3sets_BN_3x2ft_Charles_NL28691 /28681Y_0724

2. In the Gmail search bar, type: Charles

3. Actual Result: The email is not found.

4. Expected Result: The email with the exact subject 3sets_BN_3x2ft_Charles_NL28691 /28681Y_0724 should be found.

Impact: Many automated systems, filenames, and technical documents use underscores in their naming conventions. This search limitation makes it difficult to efficiently find important emails. Please consider updating the search algorithm to treat underscores as literal characters within the subject: operator.

Thank you.

[jatkin]

I looked into this recently, Gmail treats an underscore as just another character and as such, searching for Charles is considered a partial word search which Gmail search does not do. It would be nice though if underscore were handled as you described.