How to Find Contacts on Instagram

Instagram is a social network, which probably means you want to connect with your friends, family, and other people you already know. Thankfully, the social media giant has made it easy to do exactly that. We will show you how to find contacts on Instagram on both Android and iPhone, so that you can navigate the social media platform with ease when you want to connect with others.

How to Find Contacts on Instagram Using an iPhone

To find friends on Instagram, you will want to leverage the Contact Synching feature the platform provides. What this does is sync the contacts on your phone, helping you quickly find the accounts of anyone who is already a contact on your iPhone or Android. As long as the people in your contacts list used the same email address or phone number you have listed, their profiles will be quickly found and synched by Instagram.

Here is a step-by-step guide to find contacts on an iPhone:

1. Open the Instagram app
2. Tap on your profile picture in the bottom-right of your screen
3. Tap on the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top-right of the screen and then tap on Settings and privacy
4. Search for Upload contacts in the search bar at the top of the screen
5. Select the account you would like to synch contacts for
6. Toggle the Connect contacts feature to enable contact synching

That’s one way to find your contacts on Instagram, but it is not the only way. Here is another method:

1. Open the Instagram app
2. Tap on your profile picture in the bottom-right of your screen
3. Tap on the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top-right of the screen and tap on Discover people
4. Allow Instagram to access your contacts or select Skip
5. You can select every Instagram account you wish to follow by tapping the blue Follow button

How to Find Contacts on Instagram Using an Android

Finding contacts on an Android is very similar to how you can find them on an iPhone. Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Open the Instagram app
2. Tap on your profile picture to get taken to your profile page
3. Find the Discover people option under your profile details or locate the person icon with a + sign next to it
4. Within the Discover people section, tap on See all
5. Tap on Connect to Facebook or Connect contacts depending on your preference
6. Grant Instagram access when it requests it
7. Once your contacts are visible, tap the Follow button for each Instagram account you wish to follow

How to Prevent Instagram From Synching Your Contacts

Now you know how to add contacts to Instagram, but what if you don’t feel comfortable with allowing Instagram to have access to your phone’s contacts? You have the option to disable this Instagram feature.To do so, follow these steps:

1. Open the Instagram app
2. Tap on your profile photo in the bottom-right of your feed page
3. Tap on the hamburger menu in the top-right of your screen
4. Select Settings and privacy from the menu
5. Search for Upload contacts in the search bar at the top
6. Select the account you wish to disable contact synching for
7. Use the switch to turn off the Connect contacts feature

Bottom Line: Finding friends, family, and others you know on Instagram is possible using the Contact Synching feature the social media giant offers. If you are concerned about your privacy, you can easily disable it after you have synced your contacts and no longer need it turned on.