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Whether you’re looking to catch up with an old friend, learn about a new acquaintance like a potential date or a crush, or investigate a suspected partner, social media can be a powerful resource. It can open up a wealth of insights into someone’s identity, personality, behaviors, and even uncover hidden aspects of their life. In this article, we’ll show you how to find an individual’s social media profiles by phone number easily.
Key takeaway
- Sync your contact list with social media platforms to find profiles linked to your saved contacts, provided they have made their profiles searchable by phone number.
- Use a people search engine. Leveraging publicly available information, this tool can help you discover possible social media profiles tied to a phone number in one report in one place with a few clicks.
- Broaden your search with additional details such as a name, an email address, or an existing username.
1. Sync contact lists with social media apps
Major social media platforms allow users to find friends through their contact lists. When you enable this feature, these apps periodically access your phone book, identify which contacts are on the app, and suggest their accounts for you.
Below we’ll introduce how to find friends on Facebook and Snapchat by syncing contacts. The steps are similar on other platforms – you can usually upload your contacts via the app settings. If you’re unsure how to do that on specific apps, let us know in the comment and we’ll offer detailed instructions.
Make sure to save the phone number (and email address, if possible) to your device’s contact first.
1. Log into your Facebook app. Tap the menu icon at the bottom right, then tap Settings, and select Accounts Center.
2. Tap Your information and permissions > Upload contacts.Select your Facebook accounts.
3. Toggle on Upload contacts and tap Continue.
Facebook will scan your contact list for names, phone numbers, and email addresses, and suggest a bunch of Facebook friends you haven’t connected with yet.
Snapchat
1. Log into your Snapchat app and tap the Add friend icon at the top right.
2. Tap All Contacts. Grant Snapchat permission to access your contacts following the on-screen instructions.
Snapchat will show you which of your contacts are on Snapchat. You can add them or long-press the account to view the profile.
Facebook and Snapchat provide a direct way to locate specific accounts tied to your saved contacts. However, some social media such as Instagram and X can be less straightforward. They aim to help you find a broader range of possible connections, relying on factors including your contacts, mutual connections, and general activities on the platform. As a result, you may hardly identify which profiles are generated from the phonebook.
Reasons why you cannot find a profile
If you’re having trouble finding someone’s profile despite syncing your contacts, it could be due to a variety of reasons:
1. The person is not on the platform at all.
2. The person may have set their profile privacy settings to prevent being found by phone number or other contact information.
3. The phone number you have might be outdated or different from the one associated with the account.
4. The user may have blocked you so you cannot see their profiles.
If this trick doesn’t work, or if you prefer not to share your contact list or manually check multiple networks, a people search tool could be the solution. Keep reading for more details.
2. Use a people search tool to search for someone’s online profiles
People search tools are designed to help you obtain information about people in a simple and time-saving way. By searching with a phone number, you might uncover associated social media profiles on 50+ networks,as well as details about the owner, including possible photos, contact info (phone numbers and email), and location history, when available.
Step 1: Choose a reliable and effective people search tool
There are plenty of people search sites available, but not all of them are created equal, especially when it comes to searching for social media profiles. Social media data is often protected by privacy settings and platform restrictions, making it more challenging to access than readily available physical data like addresses or phone numbers.
We’ve reviewed various tools to find the best one for social media search. And Intelius® stands out for its extensive coverage of social networks, informative reports, and excellent user experience.
Step 2: Search with the phone number
Once you’ve selected a tool, the next step is to conduct the search. For example, with Intelius, you simply visit its phone lookup page, enter a phone number, and hit Search. The tool will scan a wide array of public sources for relevant information. Give it a few minutes to deliver the results.
Step 3: View results
After the search is complete, you’ll receive a detailed report summarizing the findings. Pay for a subscription and you can unlock the report. It may contain a wealth of information such as the possible owner’s name, known aliases, and job history, and also other people associated with the number, possibly the owner’s family members or previous owners. Besides, it may include related links to the owner’s social media profiles, web pages, etc.
Scroll through the phone report to uncover the owner’s contact information, such as possible phone numbers, email addresses, and location history. The Social section can disclose a variety of social media details, such as profile links, usernames, and some key information extracted, when available.
While people search tools aim to be detailed and thorough, they don’t guarantee complete results. If the initial phone number search isn’t fruitful, consider running a background report for a deeper dive into an individual’s background history. It’s included in the reverse phone lookup membership subscription plan.
It can search not only via phone numbers but also other identifiers like names and addresses to pull more pertinent information and additional categories like criminal & traffic records, business profiles, licenses, and assets.
If you don’t want to pay and are willing to invest time, you can also conduct an in-depth manual search as described below.
3. Broaden your search with additional information
Beyond just using a phone number, you could find someone’s social media profiles by their name, email address, or even photos. If you don’t have this information yet, start with the preliminary steps below:
- Do a basic Google search
Type in the phone number in the correct format (xxx)xxx-xxxx and wrap it in quotation marks to filter the exact sequence. Google will look for public mentions of the phone number, and you may occasionally find results from people search sites that display the owner’s name, location, and other basic personal information.
- Take advantage of freemium people search tools like Truepeoplesearch
Enter a phone number and locate the person you wish to look up. The website can provide a wealth of information like their phone numbers, emails, address history, and possible relatives – all for free. Premium background and criminal reports still require payment.
Now that you’ve collected more details beyond the phone number, you can leverage them for a more targeted social media search.
Search with full name + filter
Try searching the person’s full name on Facebook and LinkedIn, where people typically use their real names, and pair other known details like location, school, or workplace. Even if the name is relatively common, adding just a city or state can significantly narrow down the results. Once you’ve identified a possible match, look into the bio, posts, photos, and connections for further clues about their digital footprints.
Check usernames and email prefixes
People often reuse their usernames across different social networks. So if you already know one of the person’s usernames – perhaps from a dating app like Tinder – try checking that username on other social media sites. Similarly, if you have their personal email address, search for the handle (the part before @), as it might also be a username they used elsewhere.
You can manually search for those usernames on social media websites, or use the free username search tool from Super Easy. It can crawl matching profiles and content across multiple popular social networking sites based on the username.
Reverse look up the image
A real photo of the person can be another helpful lead. Upload it to an image search tool like Google Images and TinEye, you may see where the picture appears online and explore more similar photos. However, these free services may not handle low-quality photos well or effectively pinpoint relevant social media profiles. If you require more precise results, especially in identifying social media profiles, consider choosing FaceCheck.ID, a premium facial recognition tool.
Manual searching isn’t a one-and-done task; it’s a journey of discovery. Each step can yield new information that helps you delve deeper. For example, finding a Facebook profile via a name search may lead you to a few additional photos, which can then be used to discover more associated online profiles.
Why you might need to find someone’s social media
Having explored how to find social media by phone number, it’s important to consider when and why to use these techniques. They’re not limited to a single context but can be adapted to serve a wide range of real-world situations.
- Reconnect with old friends. Social media has made it easier than ever to reconnect with people from the past. Before reaching out directly, you might want to check in on how the long-lost friends have been doing by browsing their social media pages.
- Learn more about a new acquaintance. Whether it’s a crush, colleague, neighbor, or community member, social media can provide a window into their personality, interests, and lifestyle, so you may decide whether to pursue a deeper connection or involvement with the person.
- Research a potential date. In online dating, a background check is crucial to avoid scams and catfish. And social media is a great resource for verifying someone, offering a more realistic picture of who they are than the polished dating app persona. Many Redditors also shared experiences of discovering their matches were quite different on social media from how they presented themselves on dating platforms.
- Investigate a partner’s trustworthiness. If you suspect your partner is hiding something or being untruthful, finding their social profiles could help clarify your concerns. By looking for their social media accounts, you might find out if they have suspicious connections or behaviors.
FAQ:
Can others find my social media profiles by phone number?
Yes, other people can find your profiles through the same sync contact feature you might use to find theirs. When someone uploads their contact lists that include your phone number or email address to social media apps, your profile may be recommended to them. However, you can manage whether and to whom your profile is suggested through the privacy settings.
> Facebook: Control who Facebook can suggest your profile to
> Snapchat: Control who can contact me on Snapchat
> X: Turn off the settings that let others find you by your email address or phone number
Instagram doesn’t allow tweaking profile discoverability in settings. To prevent others from finding you by phone number on IG, it’s best to remove your number from the profile.
Additionally, others might use online tools or conduct manual searches to find your profiles. To safeguard your privacy, you should be careful with the content you post and where you share your phone number online.
Wrapping up
There are various approaches to finding someone’s social media by phone number, each varying in efficiency and ease of use. You may choose one method or combine several to achieve the maximum outcome. In most cases, you’ll likely find the person on at least one or two major social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn – unless they’re highly privacy-conscious online or completely off the grid.
The information available on tools discussed in this article may not be 100% accurate, complete, or up to date, so do not use it as a substitute for your own due diligence, especially if you have concerns about a person’s criminal history. These services don’t make any representation or warranty about the accuracy of the information available through their services or about the character or integrity of the person about whom you inquire. For more information, please review the service’s Terms of Use.
All product names, logos, brands, trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
There’s no guarantee you’ll find the information you’re looking for with the tools discussed in this article. They all source their information from publicly available data sources, such as county, state and federal courts, government departments, and police records, and those sources may contain incorrect or incomplete data. It’s illegal to use these tools to make decisions about employment, admission, consumer credit, insurance, tenant screening, or any other purpose that would require FCRA compliance. Read the Fair Credit Reporting Act to learn more....
