Twitter’s popularity means that you’ll find everyone from business executives to entertainers on the platform. And while it’s great for following your favorite personalities or catching up on news, not everyone wants to make a Twitter account.
Thankfully, Twitter’s open nature lets anyone check out the micro-blogging social network without having to sign up. Whether you want to see what’s trending or see one user’s tweets, we’ll show you how to use Twitter without signing up.
Can You Use Twitter Without an Account?
You can use many parts of Twitter without an account, but certain functions won’t work unless you sign in.
Things you can’t do on Twitter without an account include:
- Following accounts/creating a timeline
- Sending your own tweets
- Replying to, liking, and retweeting tweets
- Using the Media and Likes tabs to see particular tweets on someone’s page
Note that Twitter used to have a feature that let you subscribe to tweets via SMS, but this is no longer available.
How to Use Twitter
Twitter can be overwhelming at first, but we’re here to help you make sense of it. Here’s a complete guide to using Twitter and understanding how it works.
When you visit the Twitter homepage in a desktop browser without signing in, it asks you to log in before doing anything. However, we’ll show you other links that let you get around this.
Without an account, you can’t use the Twitter app for Android or iPhone—it asks you to sign in immediately. However, you can utilize many of the same tips below on your phone by using a mobile browser instead.
Start on Twitter’s Explore page
Since Twitter’s homepage is a dead end without an account, you should instead start on the Explore page. On the For you tab, you’ll see trending topics across a variety of areas.
Click one to see additional information about it. This will include related tweets, plus videos, photos, and a summary of the event (depending on the topic).
Use the tabs along the top to select a particular topic you’re interested in, such as News, Sports, or Entertainment. Each one will bring up the biggest stories in that sphere, which you can click to learn more about.
If you just want to use Twitter to keep up on trending topics, this is an easy way to do so without an account.
Third-Party Sites for Trending Twitter News
If you like the idea of seeing trending topics at a glance but want more than what Twitter’s homepage provides, some third-party services do a great job of collecting the biggest hashtags of the moment. These don’t require an account either.
Give these sites a try if this sounds like something you’d like:
- Trends24: With a simple, hourly updated list of the top trending topics, Trends24 lets you see the topics from the past 24 hours. Highlight one to see how it’s changed in popularity over the hours, or click it to see more information and view it on Twitter. Use the dropdown at the top to filter by country; the default view is worldwide.
- GetDayTrends: Here, you can check the top trending topics and hashtags from the past day; click to see how they’ve changed over time or in various regions. There’s also a date selector at the top of the list that you can use to check past data. And in addition to the top hashtags on the right side, you’ll see the hashtags that have been trending for the longest time.
Search to Find Content on Twitter
If you’re looking for something specific on Twitter, the search bar at the top of the Explore page is extremely helpful and works without an account. Type a username, topic, or other keyword to see suggestions.
Twitter will show stories matching any of the words you enter, as well as accounts. Click a story to see more about it, or enter any term you want to search Twitter for it.
Don’t forget about hashtags on Twitter, which make it easy to find tweets related to a certain topic. You can also search for users with their @username.
By default, search terms will show the Top tweets tab. Use the tabs at the top to switch to Latest if you want to sort by time instead of popularity. People will show accounts matching the term, while Photos and Videos filter to show only tweets containing media.
Twitter Advanced Search
Twitter’s Advanced Search is a super handy tool that you surprisingly don’t need an account to use. With its many options, you’ll be able to locate the right tweet or user if the default search doesn’t work out.
You can sort your results based on keywords or phrases, add hashtags, filter by language, add which accounts sent it or were mentioned in it, restrict by time, and even choose the minimum amount of likes or retweets.
It’s simple to use once you get accustomed to it, and one of the most powerful tools any logged-out Twitter user has in their toolkit.
Read Tweets From a Particular User
Twitter lets you read anyone’s tweets without needing an account—all you have to do is visit their profile page. Keep in mind that you can’t see a profile if someone has made their account private, though.
You can search for a user on Twitter itself, as mentioned above, or search for them on Google. Just search for “[person] Twitter” and you should easily find their account.
Searching on Google is often easier than searching on Twitter, since since not everyone uses their real name for their account. Thus, a Google search will likely offer better clues.
Once you find the user’s Twitter handle, you can bookmark that page to easily check it in the future. In case you prefer RSS, you can use RSS.app to create a feed from a Twitter page.
Otherwise, you can click on an account anywhere on Twitter to open its profile page. Thus, it’s easy to see more from accounts that catch your eye.
Follow Twitter Lists for Many Accounts in One
You aren’t limited to following individual accounts on Twitter. Twitter Lists are collections of multiple accounts, allowing you to scroll through tweets from many people all in one place.
They’ll help you keep tabs on Twitter communities that line up with your interests. For example, Twitter’s @Verified account has a list of Olympians.
Of course, without an account, you can only follow public lists. Private lists are off-limits. If you’re signed in, Twitter allows you to search for lists, but it’s harder to find them without an account. Try ScoutZen’s Twitter list search to discover ones for you.
Use Twitter Account-Free
With these tips and tools, you can get a lot out of Twitter even if you don’t have an account. They let you keep up with the content that you care about without getting sucked into endless tweets on your timeline.
No matter whether you use an account or not, there’s a lot to know when you use Twitter, so be sure you understand how it works to get the most of it.
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