LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 740 million members worldwide as of October 2022. While LinkedIn is designed primarily for building your professional profile, establishing connections, and finding job opportunities, one feature that is noticeably absent is the ability to make phone calls directly through the platform.
Can you call someone on LinkedIn?
The short answer is no, you cannot directly call someone through LinkedIn. LinkedIn does not have any built-in calling or video chat capabilities between members. Some key reasons why you can’t call on LinkedIn include:
- No native calling features – LinkedIn simply does not have any features or buttons to call other members built into the platform’s interface.
- No access to contact details – You only have access to the professional details members choose to share on their profile. Personal contact details like phone numbers are not available.
- Privacy/security concerns – Allowing calling could raise privacy issues and security risks for members.
- Not the platform’s purpose – LinkedIn aims to be a professional networking platform, not a calling/video chat platform.
While you can’t call directly through LinkedIn, there are some workarounds that allow you to call another member, which will be covered later in this article.
LinkedIn’s messaging features
Instead of calling, LinkedIn provides various messaging features to communicate with other members, including:
- InMail – Direct private messages sent to any LinkedIn member, even if you’re not connected.
- Messages – Send private messages to your 1st-degree connections.
- Chat – Have real-time messaging conversations with your 1st-degree connections.
These messaging options allow you to communicate one-on-one or with groups of connections on LinkedIn without sharing contact details. While messaging is useful, it does not provide the immediacy and conversational flow of an actual voice call.
Workarounds to call someone on LinkedIn
If you need to talk live with a LinkedIn connection, there are a few workarounds you can use to call them outside the LinkedIn platform:
- Ask to connect via email – You can message the member asking to continue the conversation via email. Once connected by email, you can share personal contact details like phone numbers.
- Use LinkedIn’s integrations – Some 3rd party services like Evernote integrate with LinkedIn allowing you to call connections through those linked platforms.
- Connect in person first – If you meet the LinkedIn member in person at an event or conference, you can exchange business cards and phone numbers to call later.
- Upgrade to premium – Upgrading to LinkedIn Premium allows you to view the full contact info of all your 3rd-degree connections, which may include phone numbers.
- Find their number elsewhere – You may be able to locate the member’s phone number through other public sources, like their company website or directory listings.
The workarounds above require additional steps outside of LinkedIn to enable calling other members. There is no direct dialing capability built into the LinkedIn platform itself currently.
LinkedIn Premium benefits
One of the main benefits of upgrading to a paid Premium account on LinkedIn is gaining access to view more profile information of your 3rd-degree connections, which can potentially include phone numbers or email addresses you could use to contact them outside of LinkedIn.
Here are some of the key benefits of LinkedIn Premium for enabling calling connections:
- Search by phone number – You can search for other members by phone number to see if a specific person is on LinkedIn.
- View full profiles – See the full profiles of your 3rd-degree connections instead of limited public views.
- See contact info – Access to view additional contact details like phone numbers and email addresses.
- Advanced filters – Filter searches by criteria like location, company, job title, etc. to find contacts.
- InMail credits – Send direct InMail messages to members to ask for their contact information.
The ability to potentially view phone numbers and email addresses on more in-depth member profiles is the main advantage of Premium for being able to call connections outside of LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Premium plans
There are four paid Premium plan options on LinkedIn offering various levels of features and benefits:
| Plan | Price (monthly) | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| Premium Career | $29.99 | Profile views, customized profile recommendations, interview preparation |
| Premium Business | $59.99 | Unlimited profile searches, business insights, advertising credits |
| Premium Sales | $79.99 | Lead and account insights, direct messaging, customized recommendations |
| Premium Hiring | $99.95 | Talent pool matching, InMail credits, candidate insights |
The Premium Career plan is the most affordable option if you just need expanded profile access to potentially view contact info. Premium Sales and Hiring provide the most profile search capabilities and InMail credits for reaching out to connect with members.
Is LinkedIn Premium worth it?
For most individual users, the Premium Career plan is probably sufficient for enhancing networking and call capabilities on LinkedIn. Here are some examples of when the upgrade may be worthwhile:
- Searching for job opportunities and networking
- Reaching out to key decision makers and hiring managers
- Contacting potential clients, partners, or experts in your industry
- Conducting market research and competitive analysis
- Sourcing qualified sales leads for your business
The expanded search filters, InMail credits, and profile visibility of Premium can facilitate calling connections by helping you find and contact the right people. However, you need to weigh the monthly costs versus how much you will use the additional features.
Conclusion
In summary, there is currently no native way to directly make phone calls to other members through LinkedIn. The platform is designed primarily for professional networking rather than live voice communication. However, by upgrading to a Premium account, you gain access to more contact information and search filters to find the phone numbers or email addresses of connections to call outside of LinkedIn. Or by connecting with members through other channels first, you can exchange details and enable calling capabilities with your LinkedIn connections externally. So while not straightforward, with a bit of effort you can utilize LinkedIn to eventually call your professional connections and expand your networking possibilities.
