Chat Search

This settings page is only available to domain administrators.

A major advantage of SmarterMail is that it stores all chats, regardless of whether the chats occur within the webmail interface, using a third-party client or a combination of both. Domain administrators have the ability to perform custom searches by date range, by the users involved in the chat conversations, by specific keywords or phrases used during a chat or a combination of all of these variables.The results can then be downloaded to a desktop or laptop (search results cannot be downloaded to a mobile device due to storage limitations) and reviewed as needed.

Note: Chat history search is configured by the system administrator. For more information, see the Features area of the All Domains page of SmarterMail Help.

The options available when performing a chat history search are as follows:

Date Range - The date range you want to use for your search. You can either type in the date or click on the calendar icon and use SmarterMail's calendar control to select your start and end date.
User - The username or email address of the person who participated in a chat.
Name - The Display Name of the person who participated in a chat.
Text - Any word or phrase that was used during a chat. For example, "2012 sales numbers" or "product ID 33489".

Chat Clients and Encryption

Many XMPP chat clients out these days encrypt the chats that happen between 2 or more users. Unfortunately, this encrypted chat traffic occurs between the client and SmarterMail itself. (Or fortunately, depending on where you fall on the topic of personal encryption.) Therefore, while SmarterMail will see chats occur, it doesn't have the ability to capture and archive the unencrypted text. Therefore, some results returned when you do a Chat History search will appear garbled or show generic text, like this from the XMPP client Gajim:

[This is part of an encrypted session. If you see this message, something went wrong.] ([This is part of an encrypted session. If you see this message, something went wrong.])