diff --git a/src/components/emoji-input/suggestor.js b/src/components/emoji-input/suggestor.js
index a7ac203ee0..6d97c5c98e 100644
--- a/src/components/emoji-input/suggestor.js
+++ b/src/components/emoji-input/suggestor.js
@@ -1,20 +1,27 @@
+import { debounce } from 'lodash'
 /**
  * suggest - generates a suggestor function to be used by emoji-input
  * data: object providing source information for specific types of suggestions:
  * data.emoji - optional, an array of all emoji available i.e.
  *   (state.instance.emoji + state.instance.customEmoji)
  * data.users - optional, an array of all known users
+ * updateUsersList - optional, a function to search and append to users
  *
  * Depending on data present one or both (or none) can be present, so if field
  * doesn't support user linking you can just provide only emoji.
  */
+
+const debounceUserSearch = debounce((data, input) => {
+  data.updateUsersList(input)
+}, 500, {leading: true, trailing: false})
+
 export default data => input => {
   const firstChar = input[0]
   if (firstChar === ':' && data.emoji) {
     return suggestEmoji(data.emoji)(input)
   }
   if (firstChar === '@' && data.users) {
-    return suggestUsers(data.users)(input)
+    return suggestUsers(data)(input)
   }
   return []
 }
@@ -38,9 +45,11 @@ export const suggestEmoji = emojis => input => {
     })
 }
 
-export const suggestUsers = users => input => {
+export const suggestUsers = data => input => {
   const noPrefix = input.toLowerCase().substr(1)
-  return users.filter(
+  const users = data.users
+
+  const newUsers = users.filter(
     user =>
       user.screen_name.toLowerCase().startsWith(noPrefix) ||
       user.name.toLowerCase().startsWith(noPrefix)
@@ -75,5 +84,11 @@ export const suggestUsers = users => input => {
     imageUrl: profile_image_url_original,
     replacement: '@' + screen_name + ' '
   }))
+
+  // BE search users if there are no matches
+  if (newUsers.length === 0 && data.updateUsersList) {
+    debounceUserSearch(data, noPrefix)
+  }
+  return newUsers
   /* eslint-enable camelcase */
 }
diff --git a/src/components/post_status_form/post_status_form.js b/src/components/post_status_form/post_status_form.js
index ef6b0fce7e..36d0d74f44 100644
--- a/src/components/post_status_form/post_status_form.js
+++ b/src/components/post_status_form/post_status_form.js
@@ -104,7 +104,8 @@ const PostStatusForm = {
           ...this.$store.state.instance.emoji,
           ...this.$store.state.instance.customEmoji
         ],
-        users: this.$store.state.users.users
+        users: this.$store.state.users.users,
+        updateUsersList: (input) => this.$store.dispatch('searchUsers', input)
       })
     },
     emojiSuggestor () {
diff --git a/src/components/user_settings/user_settings.js b/src/components/user_settings/user_settings.js
index 0c3b2aef04..b5a7f0dfdd 100644
--- a/src/components/user_settings/user_settings.js
+++ b/src/components/user_settings/user_settings.js
@@ -91,7 +91,8 @@ const UserSettings = {
           ...this.$store.state.instance.emoji,
           ...this.$store.state.instance.customEmoji
         ],
-        users: this.$store.state.users.users
+        users: this.$store.state.users.users,
+        updateUsersList: (input) => this.$store.dispatch('searchUsers', input)
       })
     },
     emojiSuggestor () {