Looks like this discussion is going in loops. Summary: (1) I believe that the patch I have fixes the bug I reported and the one Eli pointed out. And it does so without bringing a drastic change to the way the description string is generated. (2) As for an extra binding that shows the complete list of all the active isearch modes, I agree with Drew that it can show a complete picture of what isearch is doing behind the scenes. @Drew: Can you please open it as a new bug report? (3) Put up a proposal with a patch ( probably at https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Proposals ) on how we should change the way the descriptions are shown right now. (4) Email emacs-devel that proposal and ask for opinions/corrections/improvements. (5) Based on the consensus, push the resultant code to master branch. So let's focus on step 1 for now :)