How to search for a number on whatsapp


How to Find Someone on WhatsApp on iPhone or Android

  • You can easily find someone on WhatsApp if you know their phone number.
  • Contacts stored on your phone that use WhatsApp will automatically show up in your WhatsApp contacts list.
  • This story is a part of Business Insider's Guide to WhatsApp.

If you want to chat with someone you know on WhatsApp, doing so is relatively simple, as long as you have their phone number. 

There's only one way of going about locating someone on WhatsApp, and that's via the Chat section. It should be noted that if you want to find someone not already in your contacts list on WhatsApp, you'll need to add them before that's possible. 

Here's how to find someone on WhatsApp in the Chat section. 

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How to find someone on WhatsApp using your iPhone

1. Open WhatsApp on your iPhone. 

2. Tap the "Chats" icon in the bottom menu bar, which looks like two overlapped speech bubbles. 

Tap the "Chats" icon. Jennifer Still/Business Insider

3. In the upper-right hand corner of the Chats section, tap the "Compose" button to launch a new chat, which will automatically bring up your list of contacts. 

4. Tap the Search bar at the top of the screen and begin typing the name of the person you want to find, then tap on the contact's name once you find them.

Type the person's name into the search bar. Jennifer Still/Business Insider

5. A new chat will launch with the contact and will remain in your active chat list until you delete the conversation. 

How to find someone on WhatsApp using your Android

1. Open WhatsApp on your Android device.

2. Tap the "Chats" button located near the top of the screen. 

3. Locate the green speech bubble icon in the bottom-right hand corner of the Chats screen, and tap it to begin a new conversation. 

4. When your list of contacts appears, tap the Search bar at the top and type in the name of the contact you wish to locate.  

5. When they appear in the list, tap on the contact to start a new conversation with them.

 

  • How to share your location on WhatsApp using an iPhone or Android device

  • How to change the WhatsApp background in your chats to a wallpaper, color, or custom photo

  • How to hide your online status on WhatsApp to protect your privacy

  • How to delete a WhatsApp contact on your mobile device

  • How to delete a WhatsApp group using your iPhone or Android device

Jennifer Still

Jennifer is a writer and editor from Brooklyn, New York, who spends her time traveling, drinking iced coffee, and watching way too much TV. She has bylines in Vanity Fair, Glamour, Decider, Mic, and many more. You can find her on Twitter at @jenniferlstill.

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2 ways to check if a phone number is on WhatsApp or not

One of the biggest annoyances with WhatsApp used to be that you couldn’t see whether a particular phone number was registered with the service unless it was saved in the Contacts app on your iPhone. That changed with WhatsApp version 2.19.30. Now you can easily see if any phone number is on WhatsApp before messaging it, and iDB shows you how.

This feature is handy when you want to see if a person whose phone number you know is using WhatsApp or not. Before WhatsApp 2.19.30, you had to first save a number in the Contacts app for WhatsApp to be able to determine if it’s on the service.

So the next time you meet someone and manage to get their phone number, you can check if they’re on WhatsApp before saving them as a contact. Follow along with us as we show you how.

How to see if a phone number is on WhatsApp or not

1) Open WhatsApp and be on the Chats screen.

2) Tap the new chat button from the top-right.

3) Select New Contact.

4) Type or paste the full phone number you want to check.

  • If the owner of this number has a WhatsApp account, it will show a green checkmark and say, “This phone number is on WhatsApp.”
  • If the number is not registered with WhatsApp, it will display, “This phone number is not on WhatsApp. Invite to WhatsApp.”
  • In case the number you check is already saved to your phone and has a WhatsApp account, it will show a green checkmark and say, “This phone number is already in your contacts. View contact.”

5) Tap Cancel to exit this option or type in a person’s first and last name along with any other details before tapping Save (you’ll review contact details on the next screen).

Important: Don’t overuse this feature because WhatsApp will refuse to check new phone numbers after a few successive attempts.

How to check if a number is on WhatsApp or not using Safari

The above method is very easy, but you should know about a second method as well.

1) Open Safari, and in the address bar, type https://wa.me/ followed by the country code and the phone number you want to check. wa.me is the official short URL for WhatsApp. For example, if you wish to check if 987654321 is available on WhatsApp or not, type: https://wa.me/+1987654321. In this case, +1 is the country code (for the USA).

2) Once you have typed everything, tap the enter key on the keyboard.

3) You’ll see a popup saying Open this page in “WhatsApp”? Tap Open.

4) If the phone number is not registered on WhatsApp, it will say, “The phone number isn’t on WhatsApp.

5) If the number is registered on WhatsApp, it will open the chat screen. You can start a chat with this person (without saving the number!) or go back to exit the screen.

More WhatsApp tips:

  • How to stop WhatsApp from saving images to your iPhone Photos app
  • WhatsApp rolls out disappearing messages with multiple durations to everyone
  • How to send pictures in full quality on iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal

How to find a person on WhatsApp by phone number: Whatsapp people search