diff --git a/lib/screens/discovery_screen.dart b/lib/screens/discovery_screen.dart
index b8f49fa..10dc016 100644
--- a/lib/screens/discovery_screen.dart
+++ b/lib/screens/discovery_screen.dart
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import 'dart:async';
+import 'dart:typed_data';
 
 import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
 import 'package:meshcore_open/models/contact.dart';
@@ -212,17 +213,7 @@ class _DiscoveryScreenState extends State<DiscoveryScreen> {
   ) {
     var filtered = contacts.where((contact) {
       if (searchQuery.isEmpty) return true;
-      return matchesContactQuery(
-        Contact(
-          publicKey: contact.publicKey,
-          name: contact.name,
-          type: contact.type,
-          pathLength: contact.pathLength,
-          path: contact.path,
-          lastSeen: contact.lastSeen,
-        ),
-        searchQuery,
-      );
+      return matchesDiscoveryContactQuery(contact, searchQuery);
     }).toList();
 
     // Filter out own node from the list
@@ -237,22 +228,6 @@ class _DiscoveryScreenState extends State<DiscoveryScreen> {
       filtered = filtered.where(_matchesTypeFilter).toList();
     }
 
-    if (showUnreadOnly) {
-      filtered = filtered.where((contact) {
-        return connector.getUnreadCountForContact(
-              Contact(
-                publicKey: contact.publicKey,
-                name: contact.name,
-                type: contact.type,
-                pathLength: contact.pathLength,
-                path: contact.path,
-                lastSeen: contact.lastSeen,
-              ),
-            ) >
-            0;
-      }).toList();
-    }
-
     switch (sortOption) {
       case ContactSortOption.lastSeen:
         filtered.sort(
diff --git a/lib/utils/contact_search.dart b/lib/utils/contact_search.dart
index 31def4e..6cbd0b2 100644
--- a/lib/utils/contact_search.dart
+++ b/lib/utils/contact_search.dart
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import 'package:meshcore_open/models/discovery_contact.dart';
+
 import '../models/contact.dart';
 
 bool matchesContactQuery(Contact contact, String query) {
@@ -14,6 +16,20 @@ bool matchesContactQuery(Contact contact, String query) {
   return contact.publicKeyHex.toLowerCase().startsWith(hexPrefix);
 }
 
+bool matchesDiscoveryContactQuery(DiscoveryContact contact, String query) {
+  final normalizedQuery = query.trim().toLowerCase();
+  if (normalizedQuery.isEmpty) return true;
+
+  if (contact.name.toLowerCase().contains(normalizedQuery)) {
+    return true;
+  }
+
+  final hexPrefix = _extractHexPrefix(normalizedQuery);
+  if (hexPrefix == null) return false;
+
+  return contact.publicKeyHex.toLowerCase().startsWith(hexPrefix);
+}
+
 String? _extractHexPrefix(String query) {
   var cleaned = query;
   if (cleaned.startsWith('0x')) {