Whether you want to connect with friends, influencers, celebrities or professionals, chances are you’ll find them on Twitter. After all, there are 237.8 million users on Twitter who are monetizable. In other words, this is the number of unique accounts on the platform. Also, Twitter has a search function, which allows you to find anything and everything. But, it is quite a challenge to find a user if you don’t know their Twitter username. Why? Think about it, how many people in the world exist with the name James? Now, instead of James, look for “JamesConner_.” Only one user on Twitter has this handle, and he is the Arizona Cardinals running back. If you want to know, “How do I find someone on Twitter without username,” this guide contains all the tips.
How To Find Someone on Twitter Without Knowing Their Username?
So, how to find someone on Twitter without knowing their username? You can use a few tricks to see if the person appears in your search results. Do you have the contact information of this individual? It is a great starting point if their target email address or phone number is on your device. Or if you know their nickname or the person’s real name. This information can help to an extent. Below are various techniques on “how do I find someone on Twitter without username.”
How Do I Find Someone on Twitter Without Username: Contacts
Twitter wants to make it easier to find people. One such way is to upload everyone in your contact list. This feature is only available on smartphones, as your desktop won’t contain this information. Here’s the solution to how do I find someone on Twitter without a username:
- Open the official Twitter app on your smartphone. It doesn’t matter if you have an Android or iOS device. The app’s functionality is the same regardless of the mobile operating system (OS).
- You can pull out the left navigation menu by swiping left to right on your screen.
- From this settings menu, tap Settings & Support.
- Select Settings and Privacy, which opens the Settings page.
- Find and tap Privacy and Safety and choose Discoverability and Contacts.
- Under the Contacts section, you’ll see the option Sync Address Book Contacts.
- Toggle this setting on and wait for a while.
Twitter uses the information in your contact list to find people you know on the platform. Not only does it personalize the suggestions for you, but also for everyone in the address book. You may start seeing their tweets and accounts in your timeline.
However, there is one downside to using this feature. If you look under the Discoverability section, you’ll see two options. They control whether users can find you if they have your email address or phone number. If the person you’re looking for turns off these options, the contact list method won’t work.
How Do I Find Someone on Twitter Without Username: Basic Search
You can use the platform’s search box to look for users. If you know their real name or nickname, it can be helpful. But, if it is a common name, it becomes much harder to find the correct account. Given below are the steps on how do I find someone on Twitter without a username:
- Open the official Twitter app on your smartphone or visit the website on a desktop browser.
- If you use a desktop browser, the search bar is in the right corner of your screen. If you use the official app, tap on the search icon from the bottom bar.
Type the name or nickname in the search bar and hit enter. Top, Latest, People, Photos and Videos on top of the results are filters. Depending on what you select, you’ll only see specific results. You can also improve the results by showing accounts and posts from any user or only people you follow. Similarly, you can determine whether your location should influence the search results.
Give Twitter access to your location and see if it improves the results. Basically, play around with the various filters.
For example, let’s say you know the user posted about a specific topic in the last 10 minutes. You can look for their post under the Latest filter. But, your search query must include a portion of their post.
How Do I Find Someone on Twitter Without Username: Search Parameters
Another way to find the person is to use specific search parameters. If you include a word or phrase within quotes, you’ll only see results containing those words or phrases. For example, when you type “Messi,” every result will have this word. You’ll notice Twitter highlights this word in the results.
Another way is to include the word OR as the search parameter. When you use this word, it looks for terms containing one or both words. For example, type Elon OR Linda and look at the results. It shows the accounts of both the former and current CEO.
There’s a lot more you can do with search parameters. For instance, say you want to remove a specific word from the search results. If you include a minus symbol (-) before the word or phrase, Twitter won’t look for it. For example, “apple -fruit” (without the quotations) will only show you results containing apples but nothing about the fruit.
If you know the user was active during a specific date, there’s a search parameter for this. You need to include the word or phrase and then add since and until to the query. Here’s an example: “Twitter since:2023-06-22 until:2023-06-23.” This parameter only shows posts containing “Twitter” from June 22, 2023, to June 23, 2023.
Let’s say the user you’re looking for linked a specific word to their blog post. Twitter has a search parameter to only show results containing URLs. You need to include “filter:links” with your search query. If you type “blog filter:links”, you’ll only see posts that contain URLs.
There are many more search parameters you can use on how do I find someone on Twitter without a username. See which ones give you the best results.
How Do I Find Someone on Twitter Without Username: Advanced Search
Twitter’s advanced search is one of its most powerful and underrated features. It can show you the right results, even if you lack sufficient information. Start with this guide on how do I find someone on Twitter without a username.
- Go to www.twitter.com and use your credentials to access your Twitter ID.
- You’ll see a search bar in the top right corner of your screen. It also has a magnifying glass icon next to it. Remember, this isn’t the same as Explore, which is in the quick-access menu to the left.
- Type something relevant about the user in the search bar and hit enter.
- Below the search filters, you’ll find the setting Advanced Search. Click this option.
You’re now in the advanced search. Now, you can look for the person based on their tweets, hashtags, accounts they mention, replies, engagement, and dates. For example, you remember a tweet from the user mentioning a specific account. Also, you remember a portion of the post.
In the first, All Of These Words field, enter the words or phrases of the post. Under the Accounts section, enter the Twitter profile name under Mentioning These Accounts. Click the Search button and go through the results. If the profile doesn’t appear under the Top section, select People. You’ll now only see user accounts based on your search parameters. This is only the start of what you can do with Twitter’s advanced search.
One downside of using this feature is that it’s unavailable on the mobile app. You’ll have to use Twitter on a desktop or mobile browser.
How Do I Find Someone on Twitter Without Username: Hashtags
You can refine the results for “how do I find someone on Twitter without a username” using hashtags. When a user includes a hashtag, it becomes easier to search for their tweets. This is because the hashtag contains topics or keywords. You should include hashtags in your search query if you know what hashtags they use frequently.
For example, try looking for specific hashtags and go through the results. You may find the user this way. Another way is to use the advanced search and include the hashtag with other parameters. You know the user likes to include certain words in every tweet. Adding those terms along with the hashtags will give you specific results.
How Do I Find Someone on Twitter Without an Account?
How do I find someone on Twitter without an account is challenging. Why? Recently, the platform implemented rate limits. What does this mean? It limits how many tweets a user or non-user can see on the platform. According to Elon Musk, the rate limits aim to reduce system manipulation and data scraping. For example, unverified accounts can only see 600 posts every day. Verified accounts can view up to 6000 posts in a day. The limitation for new unverified accounts is 300 tweets every day. Due to these drastic changes, several Twitter results will no longer appear on Google.
Another reason affecting the search results is the need for an account to view tweets. You can even try this out yourself. Open incognito mode in your browser and look for Elon Musk’s Twitter account. While you can see the profile, you’ll notice their tweets are no longer visible. It was possible to visit “www.twitter.com/explore” without an account. If you try to visit this link now, the platform will ask you to create or log in to your account.
However, the platform is going back on its decision. You may see individual posts, but not everything in their timeline. It may take some time for the changes to take effect. You can look for the user by their real name or nickname on Twitter. Again, the ability to use Twitter without an account may change. This is due to how quickly rules change on the platform. As a result, how do I find someone on Twitter without a username is harder, especially without an account.
Can You Turn Off Twitter Recommendations?
The answer to “Can you turn off Twitter recommendations” is no. It’s not possible to deactivate this feature on the social media network. The platform uses recommendations to show you posts and accounts you may like. This is what you see under the For You section in your timeline. Twitter recommendations can help you with how do I find someone on Twitter without a username.
It uses the platform’s algorithm to power this portion of the website. This is why you see a lot of posts from people you don’t follow. However, you can switch to the Following tab in your timeline. In this section, there are only tweets from accounts you follow.
Fortunately, there is a way to control the recommendation system. Remember, its goal is to show content you resonate with. So, there are several ways to let the algorithm know what you like and don’t like.
One way is to go to the Settings page and find Content You See. You can control what appears in your home timeline. For example, open Interests and go through the list. This is what the platform learns about you while you use the platform. You can deselect all the interests, which changes what you see on the social media network. But the algorithm will take a while to show you different tweets and accounts.
You can also go through Topics and see what you want to follow and unfollow. Remember, what you change here, influences the ads, events, accounts and tweets the algorithm suggests. You should keep in mind that the algorithm learns from your activity on the platform. So pay attention to the tweets you engage with. If you dislike something or find it offensive, let the algorithm know you don’t find the tweet interesting.
How To Turn off Follow Suggestions on Twitter?
How to turn off follow suggestions on Twitter isn’t possible. As you may already know, Follow Suggestions are accounts the platform thinks you’ll like. You’ll see them on the side as you scroll through your timeline. You can tweak the results of how do I find someone on Twitter without a username through Follow Suggestions.
Although you cannot turn off these suggestions, you can influence what it displays. For example, let’s say it recommends an account, but you don’t like its content. In this case, you can mute or block the profile.
Regarding “How do I find someone on Twitter without a username,” this guide covers all the techniques. Try combining different methods and see if you are getting closer or farther away from the user. Make all the changes to Follow Suggestions and recommendations as per this guide.
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