Search

Opening it

Press Ctrl K or /, or click the search bar at the top of the window. On a TV, Search is at the top of the side menu, and Home and Sports have a search box too. Phones keep that search box too. On a TV, results put names that start with what you typed first, and Search channels in Live TV searches all your channels, not just the list on screen, and narrows the guide to the matches while you type.

Before you type, Try typing suggests a few searches from your own library: a channel you have, a show that’s on now, something added lately. Click one to search for it.

What it finds

• Channels, by name or by the short name people usually type for a network. A channel you renamed is found by that name too. A channel your provider lists in several qualities is one row, and it plays the best one.
• Shows in the guide, over the next two days and what your provider keeps for catch-up. Each show is one row, with where it’s on now or when it’s on next.
• Movies and series. Titles are matched without the year, quality tags and language codes providers add, so you can type the title the way you’d say it.
• Games, with every feed in your playlists that carries them and live scores from a public schedule. A game none of your channels carries still shows, marked no feeds yet, and so does one whose channels are in a group you hid. See Sports and Sports and search.
• Topics. Type a word like news, kids or cooking to see channels for it, what’s on them now, and movies and series about it.

Results are grouped. The group that matches best comes first. Within a group, the closest matches come first, then what you’ve picked before, then your favorites and what you watched lately.

It learns from your picks

When you open or watch a channel, show, movie or series from search, Theia remembers it. Type the same words next time, or the start of them, and that result moves up among what they find. A result that matches your words exactly keeps its place unless you’ve picked the other one twice for exactly those words.

What you’ve picked stays on your device. Clear search history in Settings > Privacy forgets it.

Shows and catch-up

Shows are grouped by when they’re on: On now, Coming up and Catch up. Pick one on now to watch it. Pick one coming up and its details open, with when and where it’s on. Nothing starts until you choose Watch (the channel’s name) now, and Cancel leaves it. A show under Catch up already aired on a channel with catch-up, and Enter plays its latest airing from the beginning. In a wide window, Watch from start beside the results does the same.

Typos

Small mistakes are fine, in channel names and titles alike: a swapped pair of letters or one wrong letter still finds it. Words spelled by ear, like nite or fone, and words run together, like eveningnews, find what you meant too. When nothing matches, Theia tries the closest spelling and shows what it searched for instead. Words shorter than four letters need to be spelled right.

Names in other scripts work too. Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew and South Asian names are found as they’re written, and Cyrillic and Greek ones by their Latin spelling as well.

When a search only finds something close, a line above the results asks Did you mean with a name from your library. Click it, or press Down to reach it and then Enter, to search for that instead.

Words like tonight or Saturday narrow games and shows to that time. When the whole phrase is a name in your library, such as a show’s title, it’s read as the name.

Keys

Key	What it does
↑ ↓	Move through the results
Enter	Open the result. For a league or a time, such as football tonight, it opens every result on one page.
Ctrl Enter	Watch a channel, show or game
Ctrl D	Add a channel, movie or series to favorites
Tab	Jump to the next group
Esc	Close search

On a TV remote, press Select in the search box to type. Press Down to reach the results, and Select to open one. When Did you mean shows, it sits above the results and Down stops there first. If your words find nothing but a close spelling does, the page says Showing results for that spelling, with Search for your words instead under it. Up from the first result goes back to the box.

Voice. If your remote has a microphone, the box says Type, or hold the mic button and speak, with a small mic mark at its right end. Select the box, hold the mic button on your remote and say what you want. What the TV hears goes into the box, the search runs by itself and the words stay there. The mic mark only tells you voice is there, it isn’t a button, and the search page has no Voice button. A remote with no microphone leaves the mark off and the box says Search channels, programs, movies and series. The listening is your TV’s own, so how well it hears depends on your TV and its keyboard. Where your remote’s search key reaches apps, pressing it starts a voice search in Theia too. Back closes the keyboard and keeps your words, and the cursor sits at the end of them. Results land on the first result the same way. On a TV, the full results page starts on the first result, and every row is one the arrows reach. Up goes back through the chips to the search box. With no results, the page starts on the first chip, and Left and Right move across the chips. Before you type, Down from the box reaches the Try typing suggestions, Left and Right move across them, and OK puts one in the box.

If a new source doesn’t show up in results yet, wait for its first load to finish.

The results page

When your words name a team, a league or a time, Read as under the search box shows how Theia read them, such as the city a team’s code stands for.

Press Enter on a league or a time, such as football tonight, and every result opens on one page:

• Read as shows the team, league and time Theia took from your words. Click a league or a time there to take it out of the search.
• The tabs above the results show one kind at a time, with a count: Games, On now, Channels, Movies and series, Coming up and Catch up. Only kinds with results show, and All shows everything.
• When nothing you asked for is on right now, a line says so. The next games are listed on the right.
• Esc goes to Sports.

Didn’t find it?

If a search doesn’t find what you wanted, choose Didn’t find it? under the results. Theia shows exactly what it would send us: your words, how many results of each kind it found, the Theia version, your platform, and your language and region setting. Add a note if you like, then press Send. Nothing goes until you do. We use these searches only to make search better. More in the privacy policy.