Use Snapchat to Find Out Who Is Calling or Texting You
Unknown numbers are easy to identify as spam , but getting a text message from someone who looks like a real person who isn’t in your phone contacts can turn your lunch break into an episode of Sherlock.
In the past, you could calculate unknown numbers by typing them into a Facebook search and watching pop-ups, assuming the person also posted their number on the social network, but Facebook has since killed this feature . Don’t worry – there are other popular social networks out there that are more than happy to help you.
Try using Snapchat to track down a mysterious text agent
Snapchat is the service you mainly use to send photos of your cats and nude body parts, as well as receive a 24/7 Kardashian news feed.
To start an investigation, take a text message received from an unknown sender. Now take the unorthodox step and add this mysterious messenger to your contacts. Feel free to call them stupid names as this will be a temporary contact.
After that, open Snapchat. Click on your little Snapchat user icon in the top-left corner of the Snapchat camera UI – you know, the one you use to keep taking photos. You are now on your profile screen. Click “Add Friends” and then click the “Contacts” tab.
If you haven’t already given the app permission to access your device’s contacts, do so. (You can remove this permission later on both iOS and Android , although this does not necessarily delete any of the information you have already provided to Snapchat.)
From there, scroll through the Snapchatters in My Contacts to find the silly name you previously created for this unknown number. If the mystery sender is using Snapchat, that contact name as well as their Snapchat display name will appear on the Snapchat list.
If you’re lucky, the person’s display name will show who they are (for example, “TheDavidMurphy”). If not, you can always search the Internet for their display name to see if they are using that name elsewhere and associate it with more information about who they are.
After you’ve figured out your secret sender, be sure to delete the temporary contact you added to your device’s digital address book. And feel free to write back and say hello – or perhaps a more personal greeting, now that you know who they are.