Learn how to find out if a particular mobile phone number not saved in your contacts is registered with WhatsApp before trying to message or call it.
Among the biggest questions WhatsApp users have is whether they could verify if a particular phone number not saved in the built-in Contacts app is registered with the service. WhatsApp for iOS and Android makes it easy to check that in a few taps.
Also see: How to send a message on WhatsApp without saving the phone number
See if a phone number is on WhatsApp
1) Open WhatsApp on your iPhone or Android phone and select the Chats tab.
2) Hit the plus button (+) in the top-right corner.
3) Select New Contact near the top.
3) Type or paste the phone number you want to check. WhatsApp will automatically show your country. To check a foreign number, be sure to select its country so that the country code is prefixed before the number. If this phone number is associated with a WhatsApp account, you’ll see a message, saying “This phone number is on WhatsApp.”
If the number isn’t registered with WhatsApp, you’ll instead see “This phone number is not on WhatsApp. Invite to WhatsApp.”
If you previously saved this number in your contacts, and it has a WhatsApp account associated with it, you’l see a green checkmark and a message, saying, “This phone number is already in your contacts. View contact.”
4) Tap Cancel to exit this screen. To save this contact instead, type their first and last name and hit Done. Note that If you don’ provide the first and last name, WhatsApp will save the contact without a blank name.
Don’t overuse this feature because WhatsApp may temporarily refuse to check phone numbers after a few successive attempts.
Check if a number is on WhatsApp via a web browser
This second method uses the “wa.me” link, Meta’s official URL shortener for WhatsApp. Open a browser like Safari and type https://wa.me/ in the URL bar, prefixed by the country code and the phone number you’d like to check, then nit the Return key on. For instance, to verify that 987654321 is available on WhatsApp, type https://wa.me/+1987654321. In this case, +1 is the country code for the United States. When you see an “Open this page in WhatsApp?” message, choose Open from the top of the page.
If the phone number is not registered with the service, the message will read, “The phone number isn’t on WhatsApp.” Otherwise, the app will open the chat screen so you can start chatting without saving the number first.
If you stumble upon tools on the web or apps that claim to check phone numbers, you’re recommended to avoid enter your or someone else’s phone number on these random services.
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