Instagram Search By Phone Number: Complete Guide [2024]

If you’re looking for the best guide on how to run an Instagram search by phone number, this is it. 🙂

As a social media manager, part of what you do is find the right Instagram users or influencers to collaborate with. Most social media managers limit themselves to traditional username-based searches.

You, on the other hand, can use a more out-of-the-box approach to increase your chances of connecting with your target users.

I’m talking about searching by phone number, of course.

This complete guide unveils the untapped power of leveraging phone numbers to unlock a treasure trove of potential collaborations for your clients. 

What you’ll learn:

• How to do Instagram search by phone number
• Bonus tip: Instagram search by phone number alternatives
• Why doing an Instagram search by phone number does not always work
• Nail Instagram content creation and publishing for your clients
• Additional resources
• Customers also ask
• Know the best way to do an Instagram search by phone number

How to do Instagram search by phone number

Check out the best ways to find someone on Instagram by a person’s phone number below. 

1. Do an Instagram search by phone number via Discover People

Do you want to help your clients find out if someone’s phone number is linked to their Instagram profile?

Follow the steps below to use the awesome Discover People feature in the Instagram app.

Tap your client’s profile icon. That’ll take you to their profile.

Tap on the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines stacked together) in the top right corner of your screen. 

Scroll down until you see the Discover People option close to the bottom of your screen.

If you don’t see the Discover People option, click Settings and Privacy. 

Select Accounts Center in the Settings and privacy menu and click on Your information and permissions. 

Select Upload contacts and choose your client’s Instagram account where the contacts will be connected and uploaded. 

Then, switch on Connect contacts to allow Instagram to start contact syncing and securely store contacts from your client phone’s contact book. 

The Discover People option should now show within the hamburger menu, and you can proceed. 

A prompt from Instagram asking to access your client’s phone contacts should be displayed. Click Continue and let it do its thing. 

You’ll find a Connect Contacts option at the top of the screen, along with your client’s list of contacts.

If your clients have not yet given the app the necessary permissions, you’ll be prompted to do so when you click the button.

Once you’ve connected your client’s device contacts to the Instagram app, check out the list of people to find Instagram accounts.

If the person you’re searching for has linked their Instagram account to their phone number, they should show up there.

Look for the social media profiles of the person you were searching for, then tap that follow button.

[Must read: Instagram Following List Order Algorithm Explained [2023]]

2. Use third party tools to do an Instagram search by phone number

If you want to avoid the hassle of scouring your clients’ contacts, try a reliable third-party tool for doing a search by phone numbers.

Before you dive in, ensure you know what info you’re sharing with them (safety first). 

You’ll usually need the person’s first and last name. 

Once you have that covered, choose from these nifty third-party tools to look up users by their phone numbers:

• BeenVerified. This bad boy provides a super detailed report with verified info about users. Plus, it lets you search using a phone number. Talk about handy!

• PeopleLooker. Drop in any details you’ve got, like an email address, all the phone numbers, or a name, and watch the magic happen. It scours social media for additional juicy info.

• Spokeo. Picture this—it’s a phone number tracking tool that reveals the secret connections between phone numbers and social network profiles. Pretty neat, huh?

Unleash your inner Instagram detective with these awesome tools, and you’ll be finding collaborators for your clients in no time. 

Whether you reach out to the top viewers of your clients’ Stories, find mutual friends, search through your client’s Facebook friend list, or use third-party tools, finding potential collaborators takes creativity, work, and the right tools. 

[Must read: Instagram Story Viewer Order: How Does It Work?]

Bonus tip: Instagram search by phone number alternatives

Besides doing a search on Instagram by phone number, you can also try finding someone’s Insta account via other social media profiles. 

Below are several alternatives to doing an Instagram search using their phone number.

Search via Facebook

If the user you’re looking for has a Facebook page, you can try checking their profile to find their Instagram account. 

Follow these steps:

• Open the Facebook website (on your desktop) or app on your phone. If you have the user’s Facebook username, look it up using the search function. 
• Once you’re in the user’s Facebook profile, go to their About page and check if they shared a link to their Instagram account. 
• If you can’t see the Instagram profile link on the About page, scroll through the user’s Facebook page (main feed) and look for posts mentioning their Instagram profile. If the user shared an Instagram Reel on their Facebook page, you can usually view the Reel (or the Reels tab on Facebook) and click the Follow on Instagram option. This will take you directly to the person’s Instagram account. You can find this option if the user’s Facebook account is connected to their Instagram profile. 
• You can also find people on Instagram by clicking the profile link—if the user included it in the Facebook post’s description. 

Search via X 

You can also try to look up a user’s Instagram profile through Twitter (now X) with these simple steps:

• Launch the X app or go to the X website and log in to your client’s profile.
• Find the user’s X profile through the search bar. 
• Most users include clickable links to their Instagram and other social media profiles in their bio. 
• Another option is to check the user’s feeds for mentions of their Instagram page, or posts shared directly from IG. Some Instagram-related posts can also include links to the user’s IG profile, like a post from an Instagram user mentioning the person you’re searching for. 

Search via LinkedIn

Another Instagram search by phone number alternative is through LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: This method only works if the user you want to find on Instagram has a LinkedIn account. 

While searching a user’s Instagram profile can be trickier on LinkedIn compared to Facebook and X, you can still give it a go with the steps below. 

• Log into your client’s LinkedIn account and use the search function to find the user’s professional profile. 
• Check if the user included their Instagram page link or information on their profile or feed. 
• You can also check if the user mentioned their Instagram handle in their published LinkedIn articles or comments on other user’s posts. 

Search using a photo

Finding someone on Instagram using a photo can be a long shot, but it’s worth a try if you have a bit of time on your hands. 

For this method to work, you must also save a copy of the photo you want to use to find the person on Instagram. 

Here’s what you can do:

• Ensure the photo is saved on your device or local drive. 
• Navigate to a reliable reverse image search engine such as Google Images and upload the photo via the camera lens icon. 
• Upload the image from your device’s gallery or local drive. 
• Browse through the results and look for any reference or link to the user’s Instagram profile. If you find a link to a Facebook or X profile, go to the user’s page on that platform and follow the steps for searching a user’s Instagram account through their Facebook or X accounts and feeds. 

If you can’t use a phone number to find an Instagram user or if none of the methods above work, you can always contact the person directly on their other social media accounts.

Also, check if your client has a mutual friend on Instagram with the person you’re trying to find.

You can ask if your clients can get someone’s Instagram by phone number or their Insta usernames or follow them on IG. 

If the person says “No,” be polite, respectful, and gracious. At least you tried. 

Some people may want to keep their Instagram profiles private and give access only to people they already know or have a professional relationship with, and that’s okay. 

No harm, no foul.

Why doing an Instagram search by phone number does not  always work

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you can’t get your hands on someone’s Instagram account by phone number.

It happens when the person isn’t on your clients’ contact list.

Many businesses and brands can have their phone numbers listed with their Instagram URL, especially if they have a dedicated line for their operations.

But regular folks, like influencers or private users, don’t always share their personal digits with the world (privacy matters).

If your clients don’t know the person’s number, you’re not likely to find someone’s Instagram account using the Discover People function or the search bar.  

You can hit a dead end when finding someone’s IG profile using a number your clients already have.

It’s a tough break, but you can always send users a DM and hope for the best. 

Ready to give your content workflow and posts a major upgrade? Try AI Assistant powered by ChatGPT today! 🤖💙

Nail Instagram content creation and publishing for your clients

Searching for potential Instagram collaborators for your client via phone numbers doesn’t always cut it. 

Want to know the secret sauce to attract future collaborators for your clients? 

Create and publish jaw-dropping Instagram content consistently.

This strategy alone has the power to make thousands of IG users flock to your clients’ profiles.

To do this, use our modern Social Media Management (SMM) platform—Vista Social.

Our platform has advanced, powerful features, from social media publishing to content scheduling and curating it with style. 

Plus, we’ll help you manage your engagements like a champ and provide you with killer analytics and reports. It’s a one-stop shop for all your social media wizardry. 

Check out Vista Social’s Instagram Business Management tools:

• The visual Instagram Planner is like having a content wizard, making planning, creating, and scheduling your clients’ IG posts for auto-publishing a breeze.  Create content, slap on catchy descriptions and photo dump captions, choose a schedule, and voila!

• Need an approval workflow that’s smooth as butter? Vista Social’s got you. Peer reviews, legal and Instagram community guidelines compliance, and client collaboration have never been this efficient with the platform’s approval workflow features.  

• Get the content calendar of your dreams to review and manage your clients’ scheduled IG content with zero hitches.

You won’t get bogged down with looking through a list of scheduled content, making it easier to check and review your clients’ posts before going live. 

Trust us; this bit is important if you want to avoid submitting an Instagram appeal form. 

Vista Social has other awesome features, such as:

• An AI Assistant within the Publisher feature that instantly generates descriptions, taglines, and captions for your clients’ posts. You can also use the AI Assistant within the platform’s Social Inbox to generate or refine responses to follower comments and Direct Messages (DMs). 
• A link in bio tool that comes with landing pages and micro websites you can customize for your clients’ other relevant links, brand and product information, and lead generation tools and content. 
• A  hashtag tool that can give you popular and relevant hashtags based on your client’s industry, niche, keyword, etc., without leaving Vista Social
• Instagram reports and analytics to help you track and analyze content performance and engagement.

In a nutshell, instead of relying on phone number searches, unleash your creative genius through amazing IG content and watch the magic happen. 

It can be a surefire way to get those collaborators knocking at your clients’ virtual door, begging to be a part of their amazing journey. 

[Must read: How to Temporarily Deactivate Instagram (Or Delete It): 2024]

Additional resources

Read these related articles to learn time-tested tips for elevating your Instagram content strategy, engagement, and marketing efforts. 

• How to Find Contacts on Instagram: Quickly And Easily
• How to Recover Deleted Messages on Instagram [2024]
• How to Monetize Instagram in 2024: Tips, Policies, Timelines
• How to Know If Someone Blocked You on Instagram
• How to Change Name on Instagram (And Username)
• How to Unlink Facebook And Instagram: Easy Steps [2024]
• How to Turn On/Off Vanish Mode on Instagram: Quick Tutorial
• How to Put a Link in Instagram Bio: Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Change the Background Color on Instagram Story
• 150+ CLEVER Instagram Bio Ideas for 2024 [Copy & Paste]
• Instagram Profile Tips: How to Optimize Your Instagram Bio
• Instagram Username Ideas: Cool, Creative, And Fun Usernames
• Instagram Reels Templates: Everything You Need to Know (2024)
• Instagram Broadcast Channel: Everything You Need to Know
• 8 Instagram Theme Pages Worth Following: Ultimate Guide

Customers also ask

Get a load of these frequently asked questions:

1. Can you find someone’s Instagram from their Facebook account?

Sure. 

Connect your client’s Facebook account to Instagram, and their Facebook friends who are also rocking Instagram will show up on the Discover People list.

2. How do you spot fake Instagram accounts?

Some of the most obvious signs of a fake IG account are:

• Inconsistent or copied IG Bios
• Spammy-looking DMs
• Random comments on posts
• Promotes a product or service or offers money
• Follows a random person’s account 

Be extra careful, though, since scammers are using verified accounts on Instagram and Facebook to dupe users. 

3. Can someone know your Gmail account from Instagram?

Your clients’ mobile numbers and email addresses are always private on Instagram. Account details are not visible to anyone except those with access to the accounts.

4. Can you see someone’s phone number or email on Instagram?

Unless the user shares their phone number or email on their Instagram bio or other content, this information will always be private on their Insta accounts. 

Users can remove confirmed email addresses or mobile numbers from their accounts at any time, so the phone number isn’t listed as long as they provide at least one confirmed email address or mobile number linked to the account.

Know the best way to do an Instagram search by phone number

Now that you have all the juicy insider knowledge on searching Instagram users by phone number, you’re ready to help your clients expand their network and score collaborations. 

Here’s a tip for leveling up your game even more: use Vista Social, your trusty sidekick, to create amazing Instagram content for your clients. 

Ready to take the plunge? 

Try Vista Social for free and discover how it can supercharge your efforts.