In certain instances, we may earn revenue when a reader makes a purchase or completes a form through our pages or on a partner’s website. We adhere to a strict 
Wondering how to find someone on all social media networks for free? This can be useful for finding lost contacts, verifying people’s identities to avoid scams and catfish, conducting basic employee vetting checks, or protecting your kids and teens from online threats. With more than 5 billion* active social media users around the world, it’s useful to know a few methods of pinpointing specific people on social media networks.
In this article, I’ll share a few tried-and-tested methods of finding someone on social media for free that have worked well for me. This will include how to find people using social platform search functions, contact syncing, and reverse image lookup.
Having also thoroughly tested dozens of ‘social media finder’ apps, and websites, I’ll cover the best options for finding someone’s social media accounts with just their name, phone number, or profile picture.
- Show Full Guide
Social Catfish – Best for finding someone on social media through reverse image lookup
The best spy apps give you comprehensive details about a person’s social media usage, but you might want something more basic, like whether your kids have hidden accounts. There are a few more reasons why you might want to know how to find someone on all social networks:
- Networking: Social media and LinkedIn have become incredibly important for networking. If you only have someone’s business card with their name, phone number, or email address, you can use these methods to find all their profiles online and stay connected with professional contacts.
- Identifying callers: If you’re suspicious of who is calling your partner, you don’t have to get a cheating spouse tracker app right away. Instead, you can use these tools to find out who they are talking to using their phone number. Of course, scam calls are also rampant in the US. Using these methods profiles will tell you whether there’s a real person behind the call or not.
- Reconnecting with someone: It’s easy to lose touch with old high school and college friends and even family members if they move or change numbers. The ability to use someone’s name to find their social media profiles gives you a great opportunity to reconnect.
- Avoiding scams: People also fall victim to social media scams, from job opportunities on Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp that are usually too good to be true to catfishing on dating apps. In 2023, Americans lost more than $2.7 billion total to social media scams. Confirming there’s a real person behind a social media account and finding out more about their online presence can go a long way in avoiding these problems.
- Parental control: While there are some excellent parental control apps available, you might not need the level of granular control they offer, especially with older kids. However, children also tend to hide their online activity from parents. If you are wondering whether your kids have hidden private profiles on social media, the methods mentioned below will help you find them.
- Vetting employees: More than 71% of hiring managers say they screen a potential employee’s social media before making a final decision. Some employers continue to monitor social media usage even after hiring someone. If you’re looking to run thorough background checks on a person, the tools below can help.
There are several ways to find other people’s social media accounts, many of which don’t require any payment. From using Google’s reverse image lookup tools to premium third-party tools, I’ll walk you through each of the four methods I found best.
You can also find someone on social media using their picture with facial recognition search engines. These tools perform a reverse search of the image you provide, showing you any related social media accounts. You can also use Google Lens to find someone’s social media accounts for free. This will include how to find social media accounts by phone number, name, image, manual search, and contact syncing.
How to Find Someone on Social Media Using Google Lens
Google Lens is a free social media search option, and it is more flexible than a traditional Google Image Search. For example, you can search for just one person in a group photo, narrowing down the search results and making it a better choice for analyzing complex images.
Step 1 – Open the Image in the Chrome Browser
Find the picture you’d like to search with Google Lens and open it in your Google Chrome browser. Right-click it to open the pop-up menu.
Step 2 – Start the Search Using Google Lens
Click on “Search with Google Lens” in the pop-up menu, and Chrome will open a new side tab to perform the search. Once it opens, you can select specific parts of the picture by resizing and modifying the position of the selection box Google Lens forms around the image.
Step 3 – Add the Person’s Name to the Search Bar
Google Lens will find exact image matches or images that resemble the one you use as reference, so you can expect hundreds of results. One way to narrow down the results is to add the name of the person or the social media platform you expect they are using to the search bar in the top right corner of Google Lens’ sidebar.
Step 4 – Browse Through the Results
Using Google Lens’s cropping feature while guiding it to search for specific names or websites will yield the best results and increase your chances of finding someone’s social media, blog, or other contact information. To view all the results, click “See More,” and more sources of similar images will appear.
Method 2 — Upload Your Contact and Sync It
Having someone’s phone number can lead to a quick discovery of their social media accounts if they’re using the same platforms as you. I found Meta’s platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, to be the most straightforward, although other social media networks have similar functions.
Here’s how to find someone on Facebook using just their phone number:
- Add their number to your phone’s contact list.
- Open Facebook and tap on the three-line symbol in the top right corner.
- Tap on the “Find Friends” tab.
- Facebook will automatically suggest you sync your contacts list. Tap on “Turn On” to get the results.
Here’s how I use the contacts syncing feature on Instagram:
- Open your Instagram app. Open your profile by clicking on your profile picture in the bottom right corner.
- Tap on the three-line symbol to access the menu and go to “Settings.”
- Tap “Account” and choose “Contacts syncing” from the menu.
- Toggle contacts syncing on to get a list of Instagram profiles belonging to your contacts.
This method works if the person you’re looking for has their phone number connected to their social media account. If you aren’t getting any results, you may need to use social media finder tools like Spokeo or manually search for their profile.
Method 3 — Manual Search
You can also find social media accounts using search engines like Google or Bing. You can simply write the person’s name in addition to “Instagram” or “Facebook” to find their profile on these sites.
Searching for your relatives, friends, or employees on social media networks can also be done manually, as nearly every social media platform has a dedicated search bar. Typing in their first and last name or a recognizable nickname can often lead you to their accounts.
You can perform manual searches on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. These apps also have advanced search filters to narrow down the search results.
In testing, I found third-party reverse lookup apps to be the most reliable method for finding social media accounts associated with a person’s name, phone number, or email address.
However, the free data they provide is often limited, and some may not offer free services at all. This is why I recommend subscribing to a free trial or affordable, short-term premium plan to get a more comprehensive report, which will include all their social media accounts.
How to Use Social Catfish to Find Someone on All Social Media
Social Catfish is an advanced reverse lookup tool that can help you find or identify people in many different ways, including by entering their name, email address, phone number, account usernames, address or even just an image of the person you’re searching for.
It scans through literally billions of records for fast and accurate matching of the image or details you input to fuller identify profiles, which can include their social media accounts. Its sophisticated image lookup tools make it particularly effective at helping you identify scam accounts or catfish with the profile picture images they’re using on social media platforms or dating apps.
How To Use Social Catfish to Find Someone's Social Media Profiles
Here’s a quick step-by-step guide on using Social Catfish to find social media accounts.
Step 1: Visit the Official Social Catfish Website
Navigate to the Social Catfish website. From the homepage, click on the “All-in-One Search” option. This feature allows you to search across multiple platforms simultaneously.
Step 2: Enter the Person’s Details
Type in the details you have, such as the person’s name, email address, phone number, or social media username. The more information you provide, the more accurate the results will be. Then, click “Search.”
Step 3: Refine Your Search Criteria
After entering the initial details, you can refine your search by adding additional filters. Social Catfish allows you to narrow down results by specifying an age bracket, country, state, or other relevant details. This step helps the tool deliver more accurate and relevant matches. Once you’ve entered the additional information, click “Apply Filters” and proceed with the search.
Step 4: Allow the System to Process the Search
Social Catfish scans the web, including social networks, blogs, and public records, for information related to your search. This may take a few moments.
Step 5: Provide Your Email Address
To view the search results, input your email address and tap “Unlock My Report Now.” This step ensures you can access a detailed report.
Step 6: Access and Unlock Full Results
Once the search is complete, a preview of the findings will be displayed. To unlock the complete report, click “Unlock Result Now” and follow the on-screen instructions to finalize payment.
Read our full Social Catfish review.
Finding someone on social media using their name or phone number is generally legal, but it depends on how you plan to use this information. If you are using publicly available data and search engines, it is legal to look up the social media profiles of friends, family members, and business acquaintances.
However, there are a couple of caveats. Using this information for stalking, harassment, or any illegal activity is prohibited and can lead to criminal charges. Of course, it is also illegal to spy on someone without their knowledge or consent.
If you are an employer vetting potential hires, a landlord checking renters, or for any other business-related credit checks, you will have to use FCRA-compliant (Fair Credit Reporting Act) services to find the person’s social media profiles.
Conducting a social media search free of charge is possible via contact syncing, reverse image lookup using tools like Google Lens, and by manually searching for someone on social media platforms using the search bar. All these methods are free and easy to do. However, due to how little personal contact information people tend to share online nowadays, these approaches may not always be effective in pinpointing people’s social profiles.
I found social media finder apps and reverse lookup websites like Social Catfish gave me much more comprehensive results when trying to find people on all social media platforms. Although not completely free, the service is inexpensive, with loads of different pricing options to choose from depending how much you’ll use it. Plus, it’s an excellent tool for advanced image lookup based on someone’s profile pictures, and it partners directly with social media platforms and dating apps to help you avoid false or catfish accounts.
FAQs
Can you find out what social media accounts someone has for free?
How do you find someone by photo on social media?
How do you find someone on social media without their username?
Can you look someone up on social media by phone number?
How do I find all of a person’s social media?
How do you find someone’s hidden social media profiles?
References
- Social Media Usage & Growth Statistics (Backlinko)
- Phone Call Spam Statistics (Comparitech)
- Americans reported $2.7 billion in losses from scams on social media, FTC says (CBS News)
- 71% of Hiring Decision-Makers Agree Social Media is Effective for Screening Applicants (PR Web)
- What is FCRA Compliance? (FCRA)
