Use case or problem
On Android, most launchers include a system-wide search: Samsung Finder on One UI, the Pixel Launcher search, and others. Many third-party apps already feed results into it. On my Galaxy S25 Ultra (One UI 9), typing a word in Finder returns matching content from LinkedIn, Spotify or Yatse, alongside system results.
Obsidian notes never show up there. Finding a note means opening Obsidian first, then its search. For quick lookups (a phone number, an address, a snippet I know I wrote down), this is the main reason I’m tempted to keep those notes in a built-in notes app instead of my vault.
Proposed solution
Expose vault notes to the Android system search, so that typing in the launcher’s search bar returns matching notes (title, and ideally content), and tapping a result opens the note in Obsidian.
On Android, this works through a search suggestions content provider declared as searchable with includeInGlobalSearch=“true”, which launchers query as the user types. Obsidian already maintains a search index, so the provider could answer from it (or from a lightweight title/alias index if full-text is too costly), and return results that open through the existing obsidian://open URI.
Current workaround (optional)
- The Search widget and app shortcuts added in 1.11 help, but they open Obsidian’s own search rather than integrating with the system one.
- If the vault is in shared storage, file names may appear through the system file search, but tapping them opens a generic viewer, not Obsidian, and note contents aren’t searched.
- Building a separate companion app that indexes the vault and exposes it to system search is possible, but it duplicates the work Obsidian’s index already does.
Related feature requests (optional)
iOS equivalent: Access Obsidian notes via Spotlight search (iOS/iPadOS)