Method: contacts.search

Returns users found by username substring.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Required
q	string	Target substring	Optional
limit	int	Maximum number of users to be returned	Optional

Return type: contacts.Found

Can bots use this method: NO

MadelineProto Example (now async for huge speed and parallelism!):

if (!file_exists('madeline.php')) {
    copy('https://phar.madelineproto.xyz/madeline.php', 'madeline.php');
}
include 'madeline.php';

$MadelineProto = new \danog\MadelineProto\API('session.madeline');
$MadelineProto->start();

$contacts_Found = $MadelineProto->contacts->search(q: 'string', limit: $int, );