How to search, sort and filter your Pokémon GO friend list

Short answer: tap the search bar at the top of your Friends list and type a name to filter by it, or use a keyword like friendlevel4, interactable, giftable or lucky to filter by status instead. The three-dot menu next to the search bar sorts the whole list by Name A-Z, Nickname A-Z, Friendship Level or Gift status. Combine a keyword with , (OR) or ! (NOT) the same way Pokémon storage search works.

A friend list with hundreds of trainers on it is useless if you can't find the five you actually want to gift today. Pokémon GO's Friends tab has a search bar that doubles as a filter, and most players never discover it does more than match names.

Search by keyword, not just name

Typing a name or nickname into the search bar filters live as you type, same as searching your Pokémon storage. But the search bar also understands status keywords:

• interactable — friends you haven't interacted with yet today (no blue glow around their avatar). The fastest way to find who's still owed a gift before the daily reset.
• giftable — friends you can currently send a gift to.
• lucky — friends you're currently Lucky Friends with (see how Lucky Friends works if that status is new to you).
• friendlevel[N] — friends at a specific friendship level, where 0 is never-interacted and 1 through 5 map to Good, Great, Ultra, Best and Forever Friend. You can also give a range, like friendlevel2-3 for everyone at Great or Ultra Friend.

These combine with the same operators Pokémon storage search uses: a comma (,) works as OR, and an exclamation mark (!) excludes a match. friendlevel4,friendlevel5 shows every Best Friend or Forever Friend in one list, for example.

The four sort orders

Next to the search bar, the list can be sorted by:

• Name A-Z — by trainer name.
• Nickname A-Z — by any custom nickname you've set for that friend (handy for pinning a friend to the top with a symbol prefix).
• Friendship Level — highest level first, so your Best and Forever Friends surface immediately.
• Gift — friends who've sent you a gift waiting to be opened, grouped together.

Exact labels and menu placement can shift slightly between app versions, but these four sort categories have been stable for years.

Why this matters for daily upkeep

Sorting by Friendship Level every day, or filtering with interactable, is the fastest way to see at a glance who still needs today's gift before you run out of PokéStop spins - especially once your list is large enough that scrolling isn't practical. If you're actively trying to grow a list worth sorting, keeping your active roster lean matters more than the raw count, and pruning dead weight keeps the search results useful instead of cluttered with friends who never interact back.

Need more active trainers to fill the list you're now sorting through? Grab a fresh, unused friend code with one tap - codes are tagged by country, and you can browse codes by country if you're filling out a Vivillon or regional trading roster.

FAQ

Does the search bar search nicknames too, or only real trainer names? Both - a plain text search matches against trainer name and nickname at the same time.

Can I combine a name search with a status keyword? The documented syntax is built for combining status keywords with each other (via , and !); mixing a free-text name with a keyword in the same search isn't a confirmed, reliable combo, so search one or the other if results look off.

What does friendlevel0 show? Friends you've never interacted with at all - level 0, before even a single Good Friend interaction has happened.

Is there a way to filter by online status? Not through a documented search keyword - online status shows as an indicator per friend in the list itself, but it isn't one of the filterable search strings.

Does sorting or searching cost anything or use up a daily action? No - search and sort are purely organizational. They don't count as an interaction and don't affect your daily friendship or gifting limits.