When you have doubts that a person you know has changed their cell phone number, you have some options to verify that. Also, you may find their new mobile number using the old one or search for their name, email, or even username on social media sites in the following ways.
How to know if someone has changed their number?
To be able to tell for sure if someone changed their number on their iPhone, always try to send that contact a text message. If you can see that the message is delivered and received with double grey check marks. That means the number is active. Otherwise, the person has a new number.
In addition, you have to try calling them on their iPhones directly. You have the iOS call features like Facetime from Macbook or iPhone. So, verify that first to confirm if your friend or partner is using a different number on their device or texting apps.
Find their other contact numbers
The easiest way to tell if someone has changed his number without calling them is by using systems that let you type their names and get all the phone numbers they own. This trick works, and if the cellular service provider has reissued that number and allocated it to someone else, you can see that on the person’s report.
By running a background check on someone’s name, the report can show you his cell numbers, social accounts, and other ways to contact them, like emails, websites, blogs, or online profiles you don’t know about. Their personal information can be found with a few clicks. But wait for the system to scan the database first, which can take a minute or two.
Just call them on the old number
Of course: When your friend or partner changes his number, and you call it, there are two possibilities:
The first one, the person has changed the number recently (less than 90 days), and in this case, you’ll hear nothing, and there will be a voice message from the carrier saying this number is not in use, “This number is no longer in service” or similar. Thus, you can tell that the number has been deactivated only and another person is not using it.
The second one: They changed the number for older than 90 days, and it usually rings. But you may hear someone else’s voice because the ownership has been changed. Of course, you can’t tell that unless you talk to the person or at least hear his welcome word.
That being said, some wireless carriers, including AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile in the USA, could reissue any inactive number to new customers as fast as 30 days. That’s unusual as people may prefer to take a break and go for a trip outside the country, but that happened.
If the person answers the call (which is not the case when using your old cell number), they don’t want to talk to you simply. So they said they had changed the number to stop being called by you, that’s it, as simple as that.
Here is another strategy that can show you if someone is lying to you about his phone number change. Try calling them from another number, even a burner one. It doesn’t matter if you’re the owner of it or not.
The goal is to test whether the girl or guy answers unknown callers. However, if your number shows your name when people use identification tools such as TrueCaller or others, it’s better to use someone else’s number to avoid being identified again.
Here is another case that may look like an inactive number when it’s not. On iPhone, there is the Do Not Disturb mode, which allows users to mute calls, messages, and other alerts automatically by the device when they drive or sleep. So, the caller will hear one beep, nothing, or voice mail. In this case, try calling again at a different time of the day.
The person could be driving simultaneously when you called. So, the iPhone has sensors to detect when someone is driving or enable the Do Not Disturb mode for the sleeping time schedule, so verify that first.
Changed or “not active” mobile numbers?
Tip: When you call someone’s number, and it rings, that does not mean the same person is still using it, nor has he changed it. It’s just a regular phone number that a user uses, whether he’s your friend or a new one.
There is no special ring or voice message to hear when the number is being used by someone else you don’t know. Meantime, sending a text message or using any chat app like iMessage for iPhone, Viber, or Facebook Messenger won’t tell you if the number has been changed or not. However, you can see if your message has been delivered, seen, or both. (two grey ticks mean the message has been sent. And once they turn blue color, that means the person read it)
When someone tells you he changes his number. Still, when you call him, you hear the ring, which means it works, and the numbers may be owned by the same person or someone else. The only way, to tell the truth, is by adding that into a search box for reverse phone lookup or searching directly for the person’s name to find his details.
When you get the search report, read his contact information tab and verify that the number belongs to them. If you can’t find it there, probably, someone else is using it. Also, you can find the new cell numbers if it’s publicly available data.
How to tell if someone changed their number on WhatsApp
WhatsApp has a good feature that allows users to notify friends when they change their cell phone numbers. That’s cool, as it solves many problems when contacting someone you used to chat with from a different number.
If the friend enabled that notification in his WhatsApp, all his contact lists would be notified about his new number change. So, check your WhatsApp notifications and see if any of these details have been sent in the last days or weeks.
If you want to know if someone changed their number through text, send that person a message on WhatsApp. If you are still waiting for the delivered status for days, that could mean that the number on WhatsApp has also been changed.
Finding someone’s number that has been changed
If someone preferred to change his number without notifying others, he probably wouldn’t be contacted anymore. Or he just forgot about telling all his contact list, which also might happen.
Anyway, think about that first. If you have problems with that person and need to explain things or meet again, then using his first name and state can show you all of their contact details, including old and new mobile numbers.
All that can be accessed from the membership dashboard that brings the power of advanced search into your smartphone or laptop.
Here are the ways that people can use to find almost anyone’s changed phone number:
- By reversing-lookup their names
- Using any of their social media usernames found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc..)
- Also, you may try searching by their email or home address if you have any detail
- Or just find the new numbers from the old ones.
If you’re one of those who can dedicate long hours searching the web, you may also try Google or Bing. These search engines can help locate people’s numbers using their personal details. That’s because public records include data indexed by these sites and are accessible publicly.
Meanwhile, social networks, including Facebook, can help to uncover people’s secondary mobile numbers if they change their primary ones. Just search for that and see if there is any profile found. Then, look for contact details.
That will only work sometimes. But if the person has registered on these social networks using the new number, he’ll make the search easier for a friend who wants to find him again if he forgets to hide his number from being discovered by others.
