In theory, finding someone on socials should be pretty straightforward – like, the whole point of social media is to connect and socialize, right? In practice, though, it’s not always as straightforward as you might hope.
Take Instagram, for example. To find someone on Instagram, you need to know their username, not their real name. But can you search Instagram by phone number? Kinda sorta. You can use your phone’s contact list to find Instagram profiles to follow, and leverage those digits to track down Instagram accounts via external search (spoilers: on Spokeo). Here’s how it works, by the numbers.
How to Find Someone on Instagram Using Your Phone’s Contacts
Already tried searching Instagram for someone you know based on their government name and come up blank? Unfortunately, you can’t directly search Instagram by phone number, or any other contact information (like their email address), for that matter. But while you can’t just pop a phone number into Instagram’s Search field, you can use that big collection of phone numbers you have stored on your phone to find people on Instagram.
Who's Calling Me?
Search any phone number to learn more about the owner!
Basically, it’s a way to find people you already know on Instagram, which you can do by syncing your phone’s contacts with your Instagram account. Here’s how to find someone on Instagram using your contacts list, on both Android and iOS devices:
- Tap on your profile picture to go to your profile.
- Tap the “hamburger” icon (the three stacked bars) located in the top right of your screen to access your Settings menu.
- Scroll all the way down to the section called “How others can interact with you.”
- Hit “Follow contacts.”
- Select “Allow access” to all, which gives Instagram access to your phone’s contact list. The app will then give you a list of your contacts’ Instagram profiles (or the profiles associated with the respective numbers), which you can choose to follow.
While you can’t directly search Instagram by phone number, this is the closest you’ll get — and the process does come with some caveats.
Most obviously, if you don’t have someone saved in your contacts, you’ll need to do that first. Another is that the phone number you have for this person might not be current, or might be a landline, or might not be the one they used to set up the Instagram account (though if you update their digits or otherwise make changes or additions to your contacts, you can repeat the process to find new Instagram accounts to follow). And finally, this feature only works on mobile, not on desktop.
FAQs
Can someone find me on social media with my phone number?
It depends on the social media platform, and if you provided said platform with your phone number when you initially signed up. If so, and the platform offers the ability for people to search for profiles via syncing their contacts, then the answer is yes.
Can people see the phone number associated with an Instagram account?
The short answer is no, that information is not publicly visible. According to Instagram, when you provide the platform a phone number upon setting up your account, that number is used for login purposes (i.e., helping you log in if you forget your password or as part of a two-factor login) and for, you guessed it, allowing people to use their phone’s contacts to find accounts to follow.
How to find someone on social media with their phone number?
You know what, that’s such a good question. We should probably have a whole section on that. And we do, right below.
Find Instagram by Phone Number: The Spokeo Way
What about how to find someone on Instagram if you just have a person’s old landline (not mobile) phone number, email address, or name? Or what if you have their phone number, but don’t want to do the contact syncing thing? Or you just want to find their Instagram without using Instagram yourself? That’s where Spokeo comes in clutch.
Just enter a phone number, name, email address (or even a street address), and hit the Search Now button. Spokeo will instantly scour over 140 billion (yes, billion) public records and turn up all sorts of associated info in the results, including – you guessed it – their social media profiles. In fact, Spokeo automatically scans over 120 different social media platforms to find your person.
And as a bonus? We also instantly search court records, other public consumer records, and more to turn up additional information about your mystery person, ranging from marriage and criminal records (additional fees may apply to view these records) to estimated wealth data. Let’s see Instagram do that.
As a freelance writer, small business owner, and consultant with more than a decade of experience, Dan has been fortunate enough to collaborate with leading brands including Microsoft, Fortune, Verizon, Discover, Office Depot, The Motley Fool, and more. He currently resides in Dallas, TX.