Is it possible to create a Gmail filter "unless"?

Question

I use subadressing in Gmail to tag incoming message, something like name+abc@gmail.com.

Now I want to filter all messages that contains ABC in the body but if I make a naive search for that string all messages that are addressed to name+abc@gmail.com are also found. I want to exclude all messages that ONLY contains ABC in to/cc/bcc and ONLY find those messages that contains that string in their body.

If I do -to:abc AND abc messages to:abc are excluded even if they also contains abc in the body.

I can't wrap my head around the booleans here. Does this make sense:

if (to:abc AND not body:abc) exclude if (to:abc AND body:abc) include if (not to:abc) AND (body:abc) include

Is that possible to construct in Gmail?

Answer 1

No, you cannot do this in Gmail

Gmail searches do not provide BODY as a search parameter.

Gmail searches do not provide unless as a search parameter.

To solve your problem you need to rethink your search approach and/or your plus labelling approach.

Example: Instead of seeding your plus address with potential search terms, use either nonsensical terms (name+zy06@gmail.com) or alternatively add a delimiter(s) (name+labc@gmail.com; name+labcl@gmail.com). Neither labc, labcl, nor zy06 will be found by search term +abc.

See: Search operators you can use with Gmail