How to See Likes on Twitter: A Complete Guide for 2026

Let’s be honest: when X decided to hide public likes in 2024, it threw a lot of us for a loop. If you’re a founder, marketer, or in sales, you know how valuable that information was. So, what’s the deal now? Can you still see who’s engaging with content?

The short answer is yes, but with a major catch. While you can no longer peek at the list of people who liked a competitor’s or a prospect’s post, you can still see every single like on your own content. This shift makes your own analytics more valuable than ever.

Why X Likes Still Matter, Even When They’re Hidden

Hiding public likes wasn’t just a cosmetic update - it fundamentally changed how we measure engagement on X (the platform we all still call Twitter). At first, it felt like a massive step backward, especially for anyone using the platform to find warm leads or gauge public sentiment.

But this isn’t a dead end. In fact, it’s a new starting point. For those of us in sales and marketing, this change forces a focus on what truly matters: genuine engagement with our brand. Think of it like social selling on other platforms; knowing who interacts with your content is the first step in identifying your most engaged prospects. We dive deep into this concept in our guide on what an impression on LinkedIn means and how to use it.

This flowchart gives you a quick visual breakdown of what’s possible today.

As you can see, your access to like data now almost entirely depends on whether you’re the author of the post. This really hammers home the importance of tracking your own content’s performance.

The Impact of The Great “Like Hiding” of 2024

Remember the old days? Twitter launched back in 2006, and for years, seeing who liked a tweet was a simple, public affair. Then, in June 2024, the platform made its seismic privacy-focused shift, and public like counts vanished.

The reaction was immediate. According to Google Trends data from mid-2024, searches for third-party analytics tools saw a 35% spike in the weeks that followed. For B2B SaaS founders and sales teams who relied on those social signals, it highlighted just how painful it is to fly blind.

To give you a clear picture of what’s changed, here’s a quick summary of your options as of 2026.

Your Options for Viewing X (Twitter) Likes in 2026

Method	Who Can Use It	What You Can See
Viewing Your Own Likes	Anyone	A complete list of every user who liked your posts.
Viewing Another User’s Likes	No one (publicly)	You can only see a total like count, not the list of users.
Using Your “Likes” Tab	You	A private list of all the posts you have personally liked.
Third-Party Tools	Users with API access	Limited data; these tools can no longer pull public like lists from others.

This table really puts it in perspective: the focus has shifted inward. The data you can access about your own audience is now your most powerful asset.

The biggest takeaway here is simple: Stop worrying about the competitor data you lost. Instead, double down on the rich engagement data you do have. The people liking your posts are your most valuable audience - they’re your warm leads, your biggest fans, and the key to refining your entire content strategy.

Using X Analytics to See Your Own Post Likes

Even with all the recent changes on X, your own performance data is still right where you left it. In fact, getting comfortable with your X Analytics dashboard is more important than ever for figuring out what’s actually working. It’s the most reliable way to see the likes on your own content.

Getting there is simple. Just head to your profile, click the three-dot menu, and then select Analytics. You’ll find a breakdown of all your key metrics here - impressions, engagement rates, and of course, the number of likes for every single post.

Go Beyond the Dashboard with a Data Export

Looking at individual tweet performance is helpful, but the real insights come when you look at the big picture. This is where exporting your data comes in handy. The analytics dashboard lets you download all your tweet activity as a simple CSV file.

Once you open that file in a spreadsheet program, you can start asking some powerful questions:

• What happens if you sort the entire list by the ‘likes’ column? You’ll instantly see your all-time greatest hits.
• Can you spot any trends? Filter the data to a specific month or quarter to see how performance has changed over time.
• Are there any posts with a ton of likes but surprisingly low impressions? That’s a great sign that you’ve created something that deeply resonates with a specific niche.

For instance, I once worked with a B2B SaaS founder who exported her last quarter’s data. She quickly discovered that short video demos earned 3x more likes than any of her posts with static images. That one piece of information completely reshaped her content plan for the rest of the year.

My Advice: Don’t just count your likes - figure out what they mean. When you export your data, you can start spotting the patterns in your best-performing content. This stops being about vanity metrics and starts being about finding the exact topics and formats your audience wants more of.

This is how you move from guessing what might work to knowing what does work. You get solid proof, allowing you to confidently double down on the content that will build a genuinely engaged audience on X.

How to See What Another User Engages With

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Since a 2024 privacy update on X, you can no longer see the list of users who liked someone else’s tweet. That direct window is closed.

But that doesn’t mean you’re flying blind. While you can’t see the like itself, you can still piece together a user’s interests by looking at their other public interactions. It’s less about a direct view and more about becoming a digital detective, mapping out their engagement footprint.

This kind of intelligence work is incredibly valuable. After all, with a median engagement rate across all industries sitting at a tiny 0.046%, every public interaction - a like, reply, or repost - is a significant signal of interest. If you want to dive deeper into how data access has evolved on the platform, you can read these insights on historical Twitter data.

Use Advanced Search to Uncover Engagement Clues

Your best friend for this kind of detective work is X’s own Advanced Search. It’s a surprisingly powerful tool that lets you find tweets a specific user has replied to or mentioned, which almost always correlates with what they’re liking.

Think of it this way: if a prospect is constantly replying to posts about “AI in marketing,” you can bet they’re liking those posts, too. Advanced Search helps you map that public conversation history.

Here are a few search combinations I use all the time:

• to:[username]: Pinpoints every reply a user has sent to a specific account. This is great for seeing who they’re talking to.
• from:[username]: The basic filter, showing all tweets from a particular person.
• "keyword" (from:[username]): This is where it gets interesting. It finds tweets from a user that contain a specific word or phrase.

By layering these operators, you can build a surprisingly detailed picture of someone’s professional interests. For example, a search like "sales automation" (to:HubSpot) (from:Prospect_Handle) would instantly show you if your prospect is talking about sales automation with a major player like HubSpot. That’s a powerful buying signal you can act on.

Using Third-Party Tools to Uncover Hidden Like Data

While X keeps other users’ like histories under lock and key, you’re not completely in the dark. A few specialized third-party tools can tap into the X API to dig up the data you actually need, moving you from simple curiosity to strategic intelligence.

Platforms like BrandMentions, Tweet Binder, and Minter.io are built for this. For example, let’s say you want to find every marketing director who liked tweets about a competitor’s recent product launch. This is where these tools really shine, turning what seems like a hidden signal into a powerful asset for your sales outreach.

Unlocking Historical Engagement Data

With over 200 billion tweets flying around each year, finding a specific engagement signal can feel impossible. This is where a good third-party tool gives you a serious leg up. BrandMentions, for instance, can pull data from over 10 years ago, giving you key metrics like total likes on posts tied to a specific keyword or event.

Tweet Binder is another great option. Its free 7-day reports offer a solid glimpse of its power, but the paid plans are where the real magic happens, unlocking up to 35,000 tweets dating all the way back to 2006. These reports can filter for the “most liked” tweets on a topic and identify the key users driving the conversation. For B2B founders looking for an edge, this kind of intelligence is invaluable. You can discover more about using Twitter analytics to see how these tools work in practice.

Key Takeaway: While you can’t see the direct “like list” on another user’s post, you can use third-party analytics to see which types of users are liking content on certain topics. This is a powerful proxy for understanding audience interests and identifying potential leads.

From Data Points to Strategic Action

But these tools aren’t just for passively watching brand mentions - they’re active lead generation engines. You can use them to build a list of influential accounts that consistently engage with your industry’s keywords. Knowing who these people are helps you focus your outreach where it counts.

Many of these platforms offer features that provide the same kind of signal-based intelligence found in dedicated lead-gen tools. If you’re looking to automate how you find and engage prospects, you might want to learn about alternatives to manual data scraping. We actually cover this in our guide comparing Embers to popular automation tools like Phantombuster.

Ultimately, the goal is to build a repeatable system that turns simple engagement data into real conversations.

Turning Engagement Signals into Sales Opportunities

Okay, so you know how to find likes on X. That’s step one. The real magic happens when you start turning those little hearts into actual conversations and warm leads. This is where social selling on X truly shines.

Your mission is to spot potential customers who are consistently engaging with your content - or even your competitor’s. A single like is just a digital nod. But a pattern of likes is a genuine buying signal.

For instance, if a marketing director at one of your target accounts likes three of your posts about AI in marketing this week, they’re not just scrolling. They’re actively researching and interested.

Crafting a Non-Intrusive Outreach Message

Once you’ve spotted a promising prospect, it’s time to reach out. The absolute key here is to be helpful, not pushy. A generic, cold pitch is the fastest way to get ignored. Instead, their engagement gives you the perfect, natural excuse to start a conversation.

Here’s a simple, effective way to frame your outreach:

• The Warm Opener: “Hey [Name], I noticed you liked our post on the latest challenges in marketing attribution.”
• Adding Real Value: “It’s a tough nut to crack. We actually put together a quick guide on how our clients are handling it. Thought it might be useful for you.”
• The Open-Ended Question: “Are you running into any of those same headaches on your end?”

This approach shows you’re paying attention to their interests, not just spamming a list. It completely changes the dynamic from a cold interruption to a relevant, helpful touchpoint.

If you’re serious about this, using a dedicated social selling platform can help you organize and scale these efforts without losing that personal touch.

The goal is to build a repeatable process that turns passive “likers” into active prospects. By using their own engagement as the reason you’re reaching out, you create a connection that feels authentic and immediately relevant, which massively boosts your chances of getting a reply.

Frequently Asked Questions About X Likes

Even after you get the hang of the new layout, some things about X likes can still feel a bit confusing. Let’s clear up a few of the most common questions I hear all the time.

Can I See Who Liked a Tweet That Is Not Mine?

The short answer? No, not anymore.

That all changed with the big platform update in June 2024. Now, only the person who actually wrote the tweet can see the full list of who liked it. While you can often still see the total like count on a post, the specific list of names is private to the creator.

Why Did X Hide Public Like Counts?

So, what was the thinking behind this major shift? Officially, X framed the move as a way to boost user privacy and encourage people to engage more authentically.

The idea is that hiding public likes can reduce the social pressure to “like” what’s already popular. It’s a nudge for users to interact with content they genuinely find valuable, rather than just jumping on a trend.

By making likes private to the author, the platform hopes the focus will shift from a post’s popularity to the substance of the content itself.

Are There Any Free Tools to See Historical X Likes?

For the most part, you get what you pay for. Most free tools are incredibly limited. You might find a platform like Tweet Binder that offers a free trial, but it’s usually restricted to just the last seven days of data and only a handful of tweets.

If you need to dig into comprehensive historical data - like tracking engagement on a topic over months or analyzing deep user patterns - you’ll almost certainly need a paid subscription to a professional-grade analytics tool. The free options just don’t have that kind of power.