The Problem
When I clear the search terms the selected email is unselected and the message view jumps back to the latest email.
Proposed Solution
Make the selected email stay focused when clearing search terms.
Context
I sometimes want to find an email where I don’t know the exact words it contains, but I know that I received it around the same time of another email. This sometimes happens e.g. if I order something and later receive an email from the shipping company. It can also happen when I have a correspondence with a third party whom I don’t often transact with and forget the name of, and simultaneously have an auxiliary discussion about this third party with my known contacts. It is easy for me to find the auxiliary conversation, but I can’t easily find the correspondence.
My workflow in other email clients have been to search for the email I know is close in time to the one I am searching for, select it, and then clear the search terms. This will cause the email to stay focused and will allow me to browse the emails that I received close in time to the selected email.