diff --git a/src/Tests/Tests.Misc.ts b/src/Tests/Tests.Misc.ts
index fc76e16..333cade 100644
--- a/src/Tests/Tests.Misc.ts
+++ b/src/Tests/Tests.Misc.ts
@@ -115,7 +115,11 @@ WAConnectionTest('Misc', (conn) => {
     it('should return search results', async () => {
         const jids = [null, testJid]
         for (let i in jids) {
-            const response = await conn.searchMessages('Hello', jids[i], 25, 1)
+            let response = await conn.searchMessages('Hello', jids[i], 25, 1)
+            assert.ok (response.messages)
+            assert.ok (response.messages.length >= 0)
+
+            response = await conn.searchMessages('剛剛試咗😋一個字', jids[i], 25, 1)
             assert.ok (response.messages)
             assert.ok (response.messages.length >= 0)
         }
diff --git a/src/WAConnection/7.MessagesExtra.ts b/src/WAConnection/7.MessagesExtra.ts
index 6f53366..e4d20a2 100644
--- a/src/WAConnection/7.MessagesExtra.ts
+++ b/src/WAConnection/7.MessagesExtra.ts
@@ -247,14 +247,15 @@ export class WAConnection extends Base {
             {
                 epoch: this.msgCount.toString(),
                 type: 'search',
-                search: txt,
+                search: Buffer.from(txt, 'utf-8'),
                 count: count.toString(),
                 page: page.toString(),
                 jid: inJid
             },
             null,
         ]
-        const response: WANode = await this.query({json, binaryTags: [WAMetric.group, WAFlag.ignore], expect200: true}) // encrypt and send  off
+        
+        const response: WANode = await this.query({json, binaryTags: [24, WAFlag.ignore], expect200: true}) // encrypt and send  off
         const messages = response[2] ? response[2].map (row => row[2]) : []
         return { last: response[1]['last'] === 'true', messages: messages as WAMessage[] }
     }