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How to find your old tweets - 2 proven methods

by

Alex Llull

@AlexLlullTW

Last update: 2022/08/16

You may need to find your old tweets for a number of reasons.

There are people who want to find a tweet they wrote about a certain topic. There may be others who want to delete old tweets that were inaccurate.

Regardless of the reason, there's a problem. If you use Twitter regularly, you probably tweet a lot. As a result, scrolling down your timeline or searching among your tweet replies is not really an option to find old tweets.

In this article, we've compiled the two most effective ways to find old tweets. Check it out:

How to find old tweets - 2 methods

There are several ways to search for old tweets. However, only two are really effective.

  • Twitter’s Advanced Search
  • Tweet hunter’s search feature

Let’s dive in!

#1 - What is it and how to use Twitter’s advanced search

Advanced search on Twitter is a hidden but extremely valuable feature.

You might find it a bit confusing at first, but once you learn how to use it, it becomes a very valuable tool. This is the 101 on how to use it:

  1. Introduce a search term on the “Search bar”, and press space to search
  2. Once your search appears, click on the three dots in the top-right corner and a menu will open. Click on advanced search.
Advanced search
  1. This will open a pop-up menu with all the advanced search options. Here, you can search by:

    1. Words: Tweets that contain certain words, certain sentences, hashtags…
    2. Accounts: Tweets from certain accounts or tweeting at certain accounts
    3. Engagement: Tweets with a certain amount of likes, retweets or replies
    4. Date: Tweets published between particular dates
Advanced search popup

If you want to make your search more effective, you may even combine several of these categories.

Make finding your tweets easier: Search operators

I bet that you are now thinking “hey, this looks useful, but feels a bit too hidden”. And you are right!

Luckily, there’s a series of formulas (called search operators by Twitter) that you can paste directly onto the search bar to make the advanced search easier.

Here are the most important ones, with examples:

OperatorExampleHow does it work?
from:from:JustinBieberReturns all tweets ever posted by @JustinBieber
since:since:yyyy-mm-ddTweets since a certain date
until:until:yyyy-mm-ddTweets until a certain date
lang:lang:enFiltering tweets by language. In this case, English
min_faves:min_faves:50Filter tweets by the number of likes
min_retweets:min_retweets:50Filter tweets by the number of retweets

As with the classic advanced search method, you can combine them to maximize its efficiency.

Imagine we want to find all Naval’s tweets, containing the word Bitcoin, posted before 2020. This is the formula we would paste on Twitter’s search bar:

“Bitcoin” from:Naval until:2019-12-31

Here's what you'd get👇

Naval bitcoin

That’s a pretty powerful tool, isn`t it?

#2 - Use Tweet Hunter's search function

It may still seem overcomplicated to most users, even after we've explained all that above. That’s why we aimed at simplified it with Tweet Hunter.

When you log in to Tweet Hunter and go to the “Search” tab on the left side column, you’ll come across this:

Tweet Hunter search

Once you're there, all you need to do is write a topic you'd like to search tweets about, and our search engine will get them for you.

You can also search tweets from specific users on Twitter. Copy-paste their username onto the search bar and voila:

Tweet Hunter Alex

As with Twitter's advanced feature, you can also refine your search terms. But instead of copy-pasting super complicated formulas, you just need to click on the icon on the right side of the search bar and a pop-up will open.

You can refine your search using the filters in this pop-up. You can filter by likes, retweets and dates.

Tweet Hunter Filter

This, along with the ability to search by topic or user, gives Tweet Hunter's search as much power as Twitter's. Just that it’s easier to use.

How to find your old tweets

As we said above, some people need these features to find their own old tweets. This is how to do it, applying any of the two methods we’ve explained in this article:

Find your old tweets with Twitter’s advanced search

  1. Go to the search bar
  2. Paste the “from:” operator followed by your Twitter username
  3. Refine your search by adding topic, dates and number of likes or Retweets.

Check out the table above if you need help with that!

Find your old tweets using Tweet Hunter

  1. Go to Tweet Hunter’s search tab (left column)

  2. Write down your username and press the enter key

  3. Refine your search by using the filter option you’ll find on the right side of the search box

How to find old tweets from someone else

There are times when we just want to find out what someone specifically said about a certain subject. Or we just want to look at their best tweets for inspiration and to look for new ideas. Here’s how to do it:

Find old tweets from someone else with Twitter’s advanced search

  1. Go to the search bar
  2. Paste the “from:” operator followed by the Twitter username from the person you want to find an old tweet from
  3. Refine your search by adding topics, dates and number of likes or Retweets.

Find old tweets from someone else with Tweet Hunter

  1. Go to the search bar
  2. Paste the “from:” operator followed by the Twitter username from the person you want to find an old tweet from
  3. Refine your search by adding topics, dates and number of likes or Retweets.

How to find old tweets on iPhone or Android

Unfortunately, the advanced search function is not available on the iOS or Android Twitter app.

If you still want to use the feature on mobile, you need to open your browser and go directly to this link. That will open Twitter’s browser version and you’ll be able to do your search. Our recommendation is that you stick to the web app or Tweet Hunter.

What now?

Now you know about one of the coolest but hidden features Twitter has to offer. You can use it to search for your old tweets, get inspired by someone else’s…the possibilities are endless!

Besides the search function, Tweet Hunter has 7 automations to help you grow and monetize your Twitter account. Take a look!

And if you are still lost on where to start building a Twitter audience, check our article on How to get your first 1,000 Twitter followers.


Want to drive more opportunities from Twitter?

Content Inspiration, AI, scheduling, automation, analytics, CRM.

Get all of that and more in Tweet Hunter.

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