How to find a stranger on instagram

How to Find Someone on Instagram in 2022

What is the main purpose of social media websites? Undoubtedly, it is connecting people. But how can one contact a person on Instagram if he does not follow him or her?

The only way to do that is to search for this person’s account. Here users meet another problem: it often happens that other Instagrammers imagine nicknames or abbreviations instead of their real names and it may be challenging to find someone on Instagram. You will agree that it is still possible if you are aware of some unique methods of searching people on this social media service.

Look: this article will focus on several most effective ways of finding people on IG that can be used by everyone

How to Find People On Instagram

It is not a secret that it may seem challenging to find an Instagram account of one person if there are over 500 million active users on the platform. But modern algorithms used by Facebook and Instagram provide a variety of effective solutions on how to find friends quickly and easily. This article will tell you about 11 time-efficient ways of finding necessary accounts on the second most popular social media platform in the world.

Search Bar

The first bright way to subscribe to an exact person is to use a search bar provided in the application. When you open the app, you can immediately see the icon that looks like a magnifying glass. Most Internet users know for sure that this icon is often used by search engines and Instagram is not an exception. You can also find it easily even if you use a browser to view your IG profile. What’s next?

Naturally, you should enter your account first. In fact, you had better know an Instagram username to get a desirable result. When you tap or click the icon, you will see a search bar and several options depending on what types of accounts you would like to choose. They are filtered by Top, Account, Tags, and Places. If you do not plan to use these options, it is enough to tap the search bar again and you will see a line where you can enter the username. You can limit the choice of the search results tapping one of the options offered by the filter:

Top. Used for all search results ranking profiles by their popularity and engagement.
Accounts/People. The selection of this option will provide only people or accounts in the search results.
Audio. Get a list of songs available in your region.
Tags. This search of posts based on hashtags provided.
Places. The search system identifies accounts close to your location.

It is worth mentioning that when you start typing the name of the account you look for, the system will offer you possible matching accounts automatically, so you can stop typing and select the one you have looked for if there is on the list. Since the number of such accounts can be quite long, use the scroll button to be able to see all of them.

You can open the necessary profile tapping it. Now it is time to decide what to do with the account found.

If it was a simple interest, you can look through the photos if it is not protected, but it is also possible to subscribe to it by pressing the blue ‘Follow’ button. Open accounts are added to the list automatically, while protected ones will get a request from your profile to approve it or not.

Location (city or place)

As it was mentioned before, the possibility to limit the number of accounts in search results by location is provided by one of the options below the search bar. It is called ‘Places’ and it allows seeing only those search results that are located in the same city where you are now. You can use this option if you make the following simple steps:

Enter your IG account.
Tap the search bar in your IG app or browser.
Select the ‘Places’ option provided under the bar.
Enter a username of the account or look through the list of all the accounts offered by the system by scrolling them.

Hashtags

One more easy way to find a post or an account associated with a unique hashtag is to use the option called ‘Tags’. It is also offered under the search bar and works in a similar way. However, it is important to remember that you should enter a keyword you try to find only with a # sign before it. It is a standard look of a hashtag on all media platforms and IG is not an exception.

There is one more thing to remember: only those accounts can be found by a hashtag that has associated themselves with it. Even if your friend enjoys makeup and shares photos of his or her works without tagging them, this account might be not added to the search results. How to find a person by hashtags?

Enter your IG account.
Tap the search bar in your IG app or browser.
Select the ‘Tags’ option provided under the bar.
Enter the hashtag with a # sign.

You will be offered a number of post with this hashtag. Click on the search result to see a list of posts with this hashtag (Top, Recent, and Reels). You can even follow the hashtag, not a person.

Facebook Contacts

If you have a lot of Facebook friends and want to follow their IG accounts too, it is possible to connect to your FB account and see who is available on IG.

It is not a secret that Instagram is a Facebook project so there is nothing surprising that these accounts are linked if they are registered using the same email address. You can add your Facebook friends to Instagram following these steps:

Enter your IG account.
Open your IG profile.
Tap settings and select the section called ‘Discover people’.
Press the ‘Connect to Facebook’ button of blue color.
Press ‘Continue’ to allow the app and website to share information about you.
Log in to the FB account.
Press ‘Continue’ to authorize FB access to IG.
Wait for a couple of seconds until your list of friends is compiled.
Select the account you want to follow or tap the ‘Follow All’ button at the top of the web page.
To return to the previous menu, tap the ‘Back’ button in the upper left corner of the screen.

Phone Contacts

It is possible to extend the list of familiar people to follow by adding accounts of people from your contacts. It is one of the ways how to find someone on Instagram without knowing their username since the main information used for this kind of search is a telephone number. Naturally, not all people can be discovered in this way on IG but it is still a chance to check this approach if you do not know the username. The procedure looks similar to the previous one:

Enter your IG account.
Open your IG profile.
Tap settings and select the section called ‘Discover people’.
Navigate to the ‘Contacts’ option.
Press ‘Connect contacts’ to allow the app and website to sync and store your contacts on IG servers.
Tap ‘Allow’ if your phone asks for Instagram access to the contacts.
Wait for a couple of seconds until your list of contacts is compiled.
Select the account you want to follow or tap the ‘Follow All’ button at the top of the web page. If there are no associations of IG accounts with any phone numbers, you will see a message saying ‘No contacts available’.

WhatsApp Contacts

When it comes to WhatsApp users, most of them are added to your book of contacts automatically so they will be available on the list too.

There is one more way to add contacts too:

Enter your IG account.
Open your IG profile.
Tap the Hamburger menu button (three-line button).
Select ‘Follow and invite friends’.
Tap ‘Follow contacts’ and proceed with the ‘Get started’ button.
Tap ‘Allow’ if your phone asks for Instagram access to the contacts.
Wait for a couple of seconds until your list of contacts is compiled.
Select the account you want to follow or tap the ‘Follow All’ button at the top of the web page. If there are no associations of IG accounts with any phone numbers, you will see a message saying ‘No contacts available’.

Following this procedure, you will also be able to see other options in the ‘Follow and invite friends’ section. It also gives an opportunity to invite friends by email, WhatsApp, SMS, and other popular ways.

How to find someone Instagram by email

Many users claim that it is impossible to search for someone on IG by email, but it is a great mistake.

Naturally, you can’t do that directly in your app, but it is possible to discover people IG accounts using third party services.

Facebook. One of the ways to do that is to enter an email address on Facebook and find this person there. If he or she accepts your friendship invitation on FB, you will be able to connect to your FB account and add this person using the way mentioned above.
Gmail. It is possible to enter the email address and get as much information about a person as possible. Some of this data can be later used for the IG account search. Also add a someone’s email to your contact list and connect contacts as we discussed above.
Outlook + LinkedIn. It’s one of the ways to know more about a person using free tools. Open Outlook, add a person’s email as a contact, go to a tab “LinkedIn”. If there is any account you’ll see it. Thus you’ll get a real name and occupation.

And don’t forget to look for username using local part. For example, if you know that someone has email like ‘[email protected]’, don’t hesitate to search for ‘shadylady’ on Instagram.

However, it is not the only way to use email for getting IG accounts to follow. There are people search engines available on the Internet.

Suggested Users

If you use IG for at least a couple of days, you may spot that the system offers you profiles of people you might know to extend the list of people you can follow. However, if you have just registered or can’t see this information at the moment, you can look through the list of IG suggestions yourself. For this purpose, you can use an approach similar to the search of Facebook friends and phone contacts.

Enter your IG account.
Open your IG profile.
Tap settings or the Hamburger menu icon and select the section called ‘Discover people’.
Navigate to the ‘Suggested’ option.
Select the account you want to follow or tap the ‘Follow All’ button at the top of the web page.

Your friend’s following

It is natural that you may be acquainted with people followed by your friends and you can easily find them too.

It is enough to open the profile of your friend and press on the number of people he or she is following at the moment. You will be offered two options: people and hashtags. The first one will provide a list of accounts with the ‘Follow’ button next to each of them. You can open the profile, learn more about this person or brand and follow it. The second option allows following a certain hashtag followed by your friend. If he or she does not do that, you will see a message notifying about that.

Google

You may wonder whether it is possible to search for people if you have no IG account. It is not a secret and Google knows everything and its search engine can help you find a necessary person on IG even if you are not registered there. You can discover the account by name, hashtag, username, phone, URL of the website, etc. It is enough to enter this information in the search bar!

Ask your friend

It goes without saying that some people keep their privacy and do not connect their IG accounts to FB, mobile phone or email address.

However, they still decide to follow other people and share their own posts with their own subscribers. If you want to follow a certain individual, you probably have common friends who might be aware of the nickname used by him or her. Consequently, you can ask your friend about that and stop wasting time on a useless and time-consuming search. Use a direct message, SMS, email, or any other messaging service for this purpose.

With a Picture

Searching for people on Instagram can be also manual. You can browse hundreds of accounts filtered by location or hashtag and look at the profile pictures. Despite the fact that this process can be exhausting and takes much time, you will be surprised to find out how many familiar faces you can see there.

There are situations when you know the name but can’t remember the surname. It is possible to enter this name and check the pictures of these accounts to find a person you need.

Influencers discovery

If you’re looking for a profile with more than 1 000 followers you could use search in influencer marketing tools (like trendHERO).

You can add filters like ‘category’ and ‘location’ to find someone on Instagram. It could be influencers, doctors, trainers, musicians, etc.

These tools could help you to find someone by criterias such as location, number of followers, text in bio, category and others. It could be perfect if you’re looking for a doctor or a couch. Good news – basic search is available free of charge. Try it for free

What to Do If You Can’t Find Someone on Instagram

It is possible that sometimes you can’t find a person on IG no matter how hard you try. There are several possible reasons for that and therefore, the solutions to them can be different too. If you have difficulty in finding the right account, consider the following:

Check the correctness of a username if you search by name.
The account you search for can be blocked, deactivated or does not exist already, so it is necessary to ask the account owner for a new username.
Your own account could be blocked and you should contact this person to unblock it.
Instagram may face some bugs so it is better to try the search later if you are confident that a user with such a name exists and is active.
Instagram can shadow-ban certain posts, so they can become inaccessible for other users (if you search by hashtag, for example).

Conclusion

There are many different ways how to discover people on Instagram and most of them do not require special knowledge and skills. It is enough to have an app and take advantage of its features to be able to find people you would like to follow.

At the same time, there are also alternative methods of finding people on IG and they can be very effective in some cases too.

Try our free tool

How to find someone on Instagram

Instagram is an up-to-date platform with more than 1 billion users around the world. Each Instagram user has a unique profile name, which is called username. Other people can find someone by it. Often happens new Instagram users don't know how to find someone. So, this article can answer on this question. We prepare 10 ways which help you in searching a particular Instagram account.

Add to the obvious search method by username, there are other ones like search by email, hashtags, phone number or personal data. Read more about each option below.

The easiest way to find someone is to use his or her username. You can do it both from the app and Instagram website version.

Open Instagram and log in to your account.
Tap Magnifying Glass Icon.
Type someone's username in the Search Bar.
Wait for the result of your request.

After that, you'll see all the profiles that correspond to the specified username. We recommend going to the Accounts to filter out unnecessary requests. The principle of actions is the same in the website version, but you don't need to go to the special section like a magnifying glass icon. A search bar is located at the top of the website.

There are no filters to search by age, location, gender, etc. Therefore, it's better for you to know the exact username.

This method can remind you the first one, but it's a bit different. Use it to find people on Instagram without knowing their username if you perfectly remember his or her first and last name. You have to act in the same manner.

Open the Instagram app.
Type the name and surname of the person who you want to find on Instagram in the Search Bar.
Look at the results and try to find the right person.

But there is the catch. Some people don't add their names in the Bio. If the user, who you want to find, relates to this category, so, go to the next method.

In addition to searching for people by their username or name, you can give a try to find a certain Instagram profile by location. It's not easy as you may think! You have to manually check each publication and try to see a face of your relative, girlfriend or colleague on it. If there are no other options, this method can be used whatsoever. We prepared a little instruction, use it to prevent mistakes.

Open Instagram app.
Tap Magnifying Glass Icon and go to the Places.
Type in the Search Bar the name of the city or town where a person whom you're looking for lives.
Choose the appropriate location and go to the page with photos.

You can filter posts by popularity or the date of publication. If the person is a fairly well-known, so search by popularity. If this is an ordinary user, search by the date of publication.

No doubt, this method to find people isn't perfect, as most Instagram users merely don't tag the location where the photo was taken. You can spend a dozen of hours trying to find, add it won't bring any benefit as a result. That's more, this feature is available only in the Instagram app.

Quite often, active Instagram users add hashtags to their posts to increase coverage. They typically capture the essence of the post or the place where the picture was taken. If you visited the page of the right person before and saw hashtags which he/she used, try to remember them and follow the instruction below.

Open Instagram (app or website).
Go to the Search.
Find Hashtags and type this one, which can lead you to the exact page.

Well, now you have to check all the found posts. Probably you will notice the right person on the one of them. But there is a significant drawback. It's not a guarantee that someone who you're looking for used hashtags. In this way, hashtag method isn't for you.

This is the easiest and at the same time the most interesting method. All that you have to do is to find an Instagram account of a relative or friend of the person you want to find. Perhaps the right account is in their following. We guess that you know how to do it but, anyway, we'll give an instruction.

Go to the page who may follow the person you are looking for.
Tap Followers or Following.
View the list of usernames and keep scrolling till you find the right one. You can rely on profile photos and usernames.

Moreover, to save your time, you can DM to a potential acquaintance. Ask if he/she know the username of the person you need.

Remember! If the profile where you want to find someone is private, this method won't work. This is probably the only drawback.

As all of us know, we need to provide contacts to sign up on the platform. So, you can can find someone on Instagram by phone number or email. Many users opt to the first option as it's more convenient. It's a way for you to search for your friends.

First of all, activate synchronization with contacts in Account's settings.

Open your Instagram page.
Go to Settings.
Choose Account.
Tap Contacts syncing.
Next to the Connect contacts item, move the slider to the right.
Confirm the changes and give access to the contacts.

Now let's add the phone number to your contacts.

Open your Instagram page again and tap triple bar.
Choose Discover people.
If there are Contacts, then go to it.
And if not, then try to find the cherished user among the general list with recommendations.

There are cases when you did everything according to the instructions, but the right person isn't displayed on the list. What should you do then? Nothing. You won't find them on Instagram by phone number in this case. They used another number or signed up with email.

Have you got a photo of someone, but you don't know this is the person exactly? That's not a problem! In our digital world, there are services that help to find people on Instagram by images. Are you interested? Let's try it in Google Pictures.

Go to the official website.
Click on the camera icon near the search bar. It's noticeable, that it is much more convenient to perform all actions from a PC than from a smartphone. Upload a photo from a PC or simply specify a link to it.
Wait for the system to process the request.
After that, you'll see similar pictures and website addresses where these photos were posted. Attentively look at each web page, and probably you'll see the person who you're looking up.

Please note! You won't find an Instagram page of this person, but you can recognize his/her name or even username from other websites. Read our article to get a detailed information about different ways to find someone’s profile with a picture.

Another service that can help you is TinEye. Unlike the previous sites, you can even upload very poor quality images here. Go to the platform page and insert a link to the photo in a special field. If the image is on your computer, then use the arrow icon to download it.

Facebook and Instagram have the same owner, but not everyone knows about this. Therefore, you can sync Facebook friends with your Instagram account without a hitch.

Open Instagram and tap triple bar.
Find Interesting People.
Find Connect to Facebook and tap Connect.
Sign in your Facebook account.
After that, Facebook friends will be displayed in the corresponding section on Instagram.

Now try to find the right person in the list.

The last but not the least method to find people on Instagram is to use search engines. Yes, it's time to turn to Google, for instance. Type in the search bar person's username, first and last name. Scroll through the list and try to find the exact Instagram page.

There is a fighting chance to find a link to the person’s Instagram page on other social networks. If you know how to get to their pages — great. Otherwise, you can use the same methods we described above to find someone on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok or another platform.

When you succeed to get to their social page, find a lead to the Instagram profile there.

Look for reposts from Instagram. You may be lucky enough to find a repost with a direct link to the original. Then you just need to follow it. With less luck, you can find a screenshot with their Insta username in it. Then you need to type it in the search bar on IG.

Check their bio. Of course, it’s unlikely someone will give the whole list of links to their profiles there. At least, it’s not possible. But there are link in bio pages which are becoming increasingly popular, and your target almost certainly has one. On such pages, you can find everything about the person. And links to other socials are an essential part of such pages. You will find the one that leads to the Instagram profile.

You can create a link in bio page for your socials too, it takes just a few minutes. Read about it here.

Well, we've got in deep how to find someone on Instagram. Don't worry if it's not so easier to find the right person. Remember: where there's a will, there's a way. Try each of these methods. Maybe one of them will be suitable for you!

How to find a stranger who liked you a lot - Tips

Every person is familiar with the situation when you do not dare to approach and get to know the person you like. This can happen in the subway or cafe, at an exhibition or bus stop. It seems that the chance is missed and the stranger is impossible to find. But today it is much easier to find a person than in the days when the Internet did not yet exist. The reviewer of "RIAMO in Balashikha" found out what modern methods exist for searching for a person and what you should pay attention to.

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Through social networks

The Internet is the most convenient and easiest way to search today. Almost every city or university has an “Overheard” group on social networks. It is necessary to write a message in it and indicate where you saw this person, time, his clothes and appearance. Thanks to this method, many people have found their soul mate. Even if the person you are interested in does not see the post, acquaintances can recognize his features and pass the information to the addressee.

According to statistics, most Internet users in Russia are registered with VKontakte. In a popular social network, you can find a person by name, age, city, place of study or work. Unless, of course, you know this data, and he indicated it on his page. It will not be superfluous to go to Facebook, Odnoklassniki, and also browse other social networks.

You should look not only for the profile, but also for check-ins. If you notice a pretty girl or a handsome guy at the exhibition, but did not dare to approach, then this does not mean that all is lost. Check which of the visitors checked in in this institution. Foursquare or Simple Check-In are considered popular applications among users.

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In search engines

Another option is to use popular search engines. In Yandex or Google, enter all the information that you know about the person. It can be a first name, last name, age, city, place of work or study. The result depends not only on the completeness and reliability of the information, but also on the activity of a person on the Internet, his fame.

Of course, if the stranger turns out to be a public figure, an expert or a creative person, then it will not be difficult to find him at all. The search engine will take you to his social media page or personal website.

The prevalence of the surname also affects the success of the search. Surnames Ivanov, Petrov or Kuznetsov will complicate the search, and you will have to review hundreds of pages.

You can try to find a person by his car number. In such a case, there are special services on the Internet where you need to enter the necessary information. True, search results are rarely positive. The infobase used by such a service may be outdated and incomplete.

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Photo Search

There are special programs that can recognize faces. Thanks to the built-in algorithms, a search occurs in all available systems. From the photo, the program will find a person's profile in social networks or other available information.

For example, one of these services is FindFace. The application allows you to find a person, find out public information and contact him through an account on a social network. For this, a photograph taken by a mobile phone is enough. The service determines the person in the photo with an accuracy of up to 70%. If the desired person was not found, FindFace offers to look at photos of similar people.

Also, the image can be uploaded to the "Pictures" of Google or Yandex. The search engine will return all sites and pages in social networks where the same or similar photos are found. You can open any page and find out information about a person that is available for viewing.

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Come to the meeting point

In the end, no one canceled a simple proven method of searching - to return to the meeting place. True, it can only work under certain conditions.

People use the same route on their way to work or school. Surely you noticed in the morning transport people whose faces are familiar to you, but you have never communicated with them. Therefore, if you met a person at a bus stop, you can come there at the same time the next day.

If you were traveling with him in a minibus, remember where the person got off. Look online for companies and educational institutions operating in the area - clinics, schools, fitness centers, etc. It is possible that the person you like is an employee of one of these institutions. If photos and initials of employees are posted on the website of organizations, then luck may smile at you. Most likely they will not give you a personal phone number, but you can call a landline and ask to be connected to one or another specialist. In the end, you can "on duty" at the door of the company, and at the end of the working day come up and get to know each other.

Public services

A single portal of public services allows you to officially find a person. To send a request, you need to go to your personal account and select the service "Provision of address and reference information". The site will require you to fill in some fields. For the request, you must know the name, surname, patronymic and the exact date of birth of the person being searched for. Therefore, this method is not suitable for searching for a stranger.

The service is provided free of charge. The answer must come within 30 days. But it can be negative. For example, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will send a refusal if you made a mistake in the request. Then it will have to be re-created.

How to find a person on Instagram by phone number

Connecting with people is one of the main goals of social networks and online networks. And since networking starts with finding the people you want to connect with, it's important to know how to do it. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and all other popular social media platforms have different methods of finding people.

Table of contents

Find people on Instagram by phone number

Find someone by phone number

Method 1: use the native option

Method 2: let Instagram find your friends

Caveats

Stay in touch with your friends

You can use any of the social networks to find people who share common interests with you and add them or follow them for updates.

The most common method of finding people on social media is by looking up their usernames or official names. But it's an inefficient method of finding someone you know because multiple people use the same username and username on the same app. Besides, it takes quite a long time. Searching for a person by phone number is a more efficient approach.

Did you know: You can control and limit your Instagram posts and stories in four different ways.

Search people on Instagram by phone number

Accessing your contacts or address book to find friends is a feature shared by Facebook and Twitter. However, few people know that people on Instagram can also be found by their phone numbers. It's pretty nifty and hidden in the Instagram app.

If you don't remember the username, full name, or any of your Instagram friend's name(s), it's okay. You can find them and contact them by phone number - this only works if they have added it to their Instagram account.

Disclaimer: This manual is for personal use only. If you use it to report, harass, stalk or harass strangers on Instagram, it is a criminal offense in several regions. Check the law in your country before continuing with this guide.

Find someone by phone number

First, you need to make sure that the person's number is saved in your phone's contacts phonebook. Also, if you want to find more than one person, make sure their phone number is saved in your device's (Android or iOS) phonebook. Only then do the following.

Method 1: Use the native option

Step 1: Launch the Instagram app on your phone and tap the Profile icon in the bottom left corner of the app.

Step 2: On your profile page, tap the Hamburger menu icon in the top right corner to open the profile option. Select Find people.

Step 3: On the Find People page, go to the Contacts section and click the Connect Contacts button.

Step 4: If this is your first time using this feature, Instagram will ask you to access your phone's contacts. Click "Allow" to grant Instagram access to your contact list.

This will allow the app to access your contact list and identify people who are already on Instagram.

Step 5: After giving the app access to your contact, Instagram will automatically sync the phone numbers from your phone to your account.

All Instagram accounts associated with the phone number in your contact will appear in the Contacts section of the Find/Discover People page. Then you can move on to choosing who you want to follow.

Note: Sharing your contacts with Instagram will automatically enable contact sync, meaning your contacts are periodically synced and stored on Instagram's servers.

Step 6: If none of the phone numbers in your contacts list is associated with an Instagram account, the message "No contacts available" will appear.

If you can't find your friends by phone number, there are only two reasons. Either they registered under a different number, or they didn't add a number at all.

Method 2: let Instagram find your friends

Step 1: Launch the Instagram app and go to the "Profile" section of the app.

Step 2: Tap the Hamburger menu icon in the top left corner and select Settings at the bottom of the screen.

Step 3: On the app's settings page, select Follow and Invite Friends.

Step 4: On the next page, select Follow Contact and Instagram will display all the usernames (read: Instagram accounts) associated with the phone number in your contact list.

Step 5: If none of the phone numbers in your contact list are listed on Instagram, the message "No contacts available" will appear on the screen.

Whenever your contact joins Instagram using their phone number, or connects their phone number to their Instagram account, they appear in the Contacts section of the app.

Warnings

Trying to find someone you don't know that well (personally) on Instagram using their phone number can be considered unethical.
You won't be able to find people who haven't linked their phone numbers to their Instagram accounts using the two methods listed above.

Stay in touch with friends

Now that you know how to connect and find people on Instagram by their phone numbers, start using that knowledge to connect with friends and family in your contact list.

Watch this video tutorial from our Guiding Tech YouTube channel (in English):