Aelano's search is not only about finding things in your library — it puts searching your library and finding new content behind the same entry point. You can search the transcripts you already imported and, at the same time, search across all of Aelano, YouTube, and podcasts everywhere for channels, then import whatever you like straight from the results.
Situations where this helps:
Aelano's bottom navigation bar has a "Discover" entry that includes search. You can also go straight there from the search icon on the Home page.
Once search is open, there is an input box at the top and four filter tabs below it.
After you type a keyword, switch between the filter tabs to decide what you are searching:
Searches content sources across all of Aelano — the ones you subscribed to, the ones other users subscribed to, and the ones featured on the Discover page. When you find a content source you like, one tap subscribes it into your own library.
Good for: you are looking for a particular podcast or channel whose name you have heard, but you do not know whether anyone on Aelano has subscribed to it.
Searches every episode already transcribed in your own library (titles, sources, and possibly excerpts of the content). Good for: you want to listen to an episode again but forgot which folder it is in or which channel it came from.
Searches YouTube directly for channels and playlists (not individual videos). When you find a channel you like, you can import it straight from the search results as an Aelano subscription, without going back to YouTube to copy the link.
Good for: you want to follow a YouTube channel long term but have not subscribed to it in Aelano yet.
Searches podcast shows everywhere (the Apple Podcasts index plus RSS). Any podcast you find can be subscribed into Aelano directly.
Good for: you have heard the name of a podcast and want to see which platform it is on and whether you can study it in Aelano.
Go to the search page and type a keyword into the input box at the top. It can be a channel name, a podcast name, an episode title, or a fragment of content you remember (for example, "BBC News", "daily japanese", "the episode about the environment").
The four tabs below let you switch. The default is "Content sources". To find something you already imported, switch to "Transcripts". To find something new, switch to "YouTube" or "Podcasts".
Why does searching "Content sources" show content other people subscribed to?
Content sources on Aelano are a shared abstraction — content sources other people subscribed to can also show up in your search results. The upside is that you can discover good content other people are already studying. Once you subscribe, that content source goes into your own library, and the two do not affect each other.
Is content in the search results transcribed automatically?
No. The content sources, channels, and podcasts you find do not consume any of your transcription points until you open an episode to study it. Only when you actually start studying an episode is that episode transcribed.
Why can I not find something I just imported?
Content that was just imported and is still transcribing does not appear in search results immediately. Try again once transcription finishes (and it plays normally in your library).
Does the "Transcripts" filter search the text inside subtitles?
It searches titles, sources, and show information. Searching the text of the subtitles themselves is a finer-grained "search within an episode": there is currently an episode-level search inside the player (on the player screen), and full-text search across all your transcripts is still being worked on.
Why can I not find a podcast?
The podcast may not have a public RSS feed, or it may be a Spotify exclusive (exclusive podcasts cannot be imported). Try searching under the "YouTube" filter as well — some podcasts are published on YouTube at the same time.