diff --git a/ts/components/SessionSearchInput.tsx b/ts/components/SessionSearchInput.tsx
index 3d1a21f54..1836e85d0 100644
--- a/ts/components/SessionSearchInput.tsx
+++ b/ts/components/SessionSearchInput.tsx
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
 import { Dispatch } from '@reduxjs/toolkit';
-import { debounce } from 'lodash';
+import { debounce, isEmpty } from 'lodash';
 import { useState } from 'react';
 import { useDispatch, useSelector } from 'react-redux';
 import styled from 'styled-components';
 import { clearSearch, search, updateSearchTerm } from '../state/ducks/search';
 import { getConversationsCount } from '../state/selectors/conversations';
 import { getLeftOverlayMode } from '../state/selectors/section';
-import { cleanSearchTerm } from '../util/cleanSearchTerm';
 import { SessionIconButton } from './icon';
 
 const StyledSearchInput = styled.div`
@@ -55,7 +54,7 @@ const doTheSearch = (dispatch: Dispatch<any>, cleanedTerm: string) => {
 const debouncedSearch = debounce(doTheSearch, 50);
 
 function updateSearch(dispatch: Dispatch<any>, searchTerm: string) {
-  if (!searchTerm) {
+  if (isEmpty(searchTerm)) {
     dispatch(clearSearch());
     return;
   }
@@ -63,15 +62,6 @@ function updateSearch(dispatch: Dispatch<any>, searchTerm: string) {
   // this updates our current state and text field.
   dispatch(updateSearchTerm(searchTerm));
 
-  if (searchTerm.length < 2) {
-    return;
-  }
-  // this effectively trigger a search
-  const cleanedTerm = cleanSearchTerm(searchTerm);
-  if (!cleanedTerm) {
-    return;
-  }
-
   debouncedSearch(dispatch, searchTerm);
 }
 export const SessionSearchInput = () => {
diff --git a/ts/state/ducks/search.ts b/ts/state/ducks/search.ts
index 359e9a9e4..2c73d8c1a 100644
--- a/ts/state/ducks/search.ts
+++ b/ts/state/ducks/search.ts
@@ -191,6 +191,7 @@ function getAdvancedSearchOptionsFromQuery(query: string): AdvancedSearchOptions
 async function queryMessages(query: string): Promise<Array<MessageResultProps>> {
   try {
     const trimmedQuery = query.trim();
+    // we clean the search term to avoid special characters since the query is referenced in the SQL query directly
     const normalized = cleanSearchTerm(trimmedQuery);
     // 200 on a large database is already pretty slow
     const limit = Math.min((trimmedQuery.length || 2) * 50, 200);
@@ -203,7 +204,9 @@ async function queryMessages(query: string): Promise<Array<MessageResultProps>>
 
 async function queryConversationsAndContacts(providedQuery: string, options: SearchOptions) {
   const { ourNumber, noteToSelf, savedMessages, filter } = options;
+  // we don't need to use cleanSearchTerm here because the query is wrapped as a wild card and is not referenced in the SQL query directly
   const query = providedQuery.replace(/[+-.()]*/g, '');
+
   const contactsOnly = filter === 'contacts';
   const conversationsOnly = filter === 'conversations';
 
@@ -239,9 +242,14 @@ async function queryConversationsAndContacts(providedQuery: string, options: Sea
     }
   }
 
-  const queryLowered = providedQuery.toLowerCase();
+  const queryLowered = query.toLowerCase();
   // Inject synthetic Note to Self entry if query matches localized 'Note to Self'
-  if (noteToSelf.includes(queryLowered) || savedMessages.includes(queryLowered)) {
+  if (
+    noteToSelf.includes(query) ||
+    noteToSelf.includes(queryLowered) ||
+    savedMessages.includes(query) ||
+    savedMessages.includes(queryLowered)
+  ) {
     // Ensure that we don't have duplicates in our results
     contacts = contacts.filter(id => id !== ourNumber);
     conversations = conversations.filter(id => id !== ourNumber);
diff --git a/ts/state/selectors/search.ts b/ts/state/selectors/search.ts
index b9cfa0b70..84e554200 100644
--- a/ts/state/selectors/search.ts
+++ b/ts/state/selectors/search.ts
@@ -75,23 +75,15 @@ export type SearchResultsMergedListItem =
 
 export const getSearchResultsList = createSelector([getSearchResults], searchState => {
   const { contactsAndConversations, messages } = searchState;
+  window.log.debug(
+    `WIP: [getSearchResultsList] contactsAndConversations ${JSON.stringify(contactsAndConversations)}`
+  );
   const builtList: Array<SearchResultsMergedListItem> = [];
 
   if (contactsAndConversations.length) {
     const us = UserUtils.getOurPubKeyStrFromCache();
     let usIndex: number = -1;
 
-    for (let i = 0; i < contactsAndConversations.length; i++) {
-      if (contactsAndConversations[i].id === us) {
-        usIndex = i;
-        break;
-      }
-    }
-
-    if (usIndex !== -1) {
-      contactsAndConversations.splice(usIndex, 1);
-    }
-
     const idsAndDisplayNames = contactsAndConversations.map(m => ({
       contactConvoId: m.id,
       displayName: m.nickname || m.displayNameInProfile,
@@ -104,14 +96,22 @@ export const getSearchResultsList = createSelector([getSearchResults], searchSta
     if (idsWithDisplayNames.length) {
       // add a break wherever needed
       let currentChar = '';
-
-      idsWithDisplayNames.forEach(m => {
-        if (m.displayName && m.displayName[0].toLowerCase() !== currentChar) {
+      for (let i = 0; i < idsWithDisplayNames.length; i++) {
+        const m = idsWithDisplayNames[i];
+        if (m.contactConvoId === us) {
+          usIndex = i;
+          continue;
+        }
+        if (
+          idsWithDisplayNames.length > 1 &&
+          m.displayName &&
+          m.displayName[0].toLowerCase() !== currentChar
+        ) {
           currentChar = m.displayName[0].toLowerCase();
           builtList.push(currentChar.toUpperCase());
         }
         builtList.push(m);
-      });
+      }
 
       if (usIndex !== -1) {
         builtList.unshift({ contactConvoId: us, displayName: window.i18n('noteToSelf') });
diff --git a/ts/util/cleanSearchTerm.ts b/ts/util/cleanSearchTerm.ts
index 32e7f5dd3..f78fb5b16 100644
--- a/ts/util/cleanSearchTerm.ts
+++ b/ts/util/cleanSearchTerm.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ export function cleanSearchTerm(searchTerm: string) {
   const withoutSpecialCharacters = lowercase.replace(/([!"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^_`{|}~])/g, ' ');
   const whiteSpaceNormalized = withoutSpecialCharacters.replace(/\s+/g, ' ');
   const byToken = whiteSpaceNormalized.split(' ');
-  // be aware that a user typing Note To Self will have an issue when the `not` part of it is typed as the not word is reserved
   const withoutSpecialTokens = byToken.filter(
     token =>
       token &&