Finding Someone On TikTok If You Have Their Phone Number

TikTok users can count on the social media platform to make sure their personal information stays private.

That’s an important element of TikTok’s policies designed to maintain users’ trust in the app. It comes with a drawback, though; you can’t find a “reverse phone book” that lets you look up the phone numbers of friends or acquaintances to find their TikTok usernames or accounts.

Fortunately, there’s a hack. If you already have someone’s phone number, you can often find the TikTok account linked to that number. Here’s what to do.

How to Find Someone on TikTok by Phone Number

Many people love the TikTok feature that recommends accounts you might want to follow. Others find it annoying and disable it. In this case, though, it can be your best friend.

The recommendations are generally pulled from your phone’s contact list, as long as you’ve synced your device to TikTok. That nugget probably gives you an idea of how this technique works.

1. Make sure you’ve synced your phone’s contacts with the app. If you’re not sure (or if you haven’t), go to your TikTok profile, tap the Menu icon (three horizontal lines at the top right), and choose “Settings and privacy” from the popup. Select “Privacy” from the next page, then click the “Sync contacts and Facebook friends” option and make sure the “Sync contacts” toggle switch is turned on.
2. Now, make sure that the phone number of the person you’re searching for has been entered into your phone’s contact list. If it’s not there yet, add it.
3. Return to your TikTok profile screen and tap the “Add friends” icon (it looks like a person’s silhouette with a “+” sign next to it).
4. Click on “Find contacts” and if asked, hit “OK” to give the app permission to search your phone’s contacts.
5. Scroll the list to find the person you’re looking for. You’ll be able to follow them or invite them to follow you.

This hack isn’t foolproof. If someone hasn’t associated the phone number they’ve given you with their TikTok account, or if they’ve turned off the “Suggest your account to others” setting, their name won’t show on your list of suggested contacts.

Instead, you’ll have to try an old-school method to find them — like calling them on the phone and asking for their TikTok username. Trust us, it still works!