With the renewed interest in perception–action coupling at the cerebral level, this idea of shared representations has rapidly been extended to non-motor domains as well, including somatosensory experiences. Indeed, in the last decades, a wealth of evidence has been produced suggesting that experience of somatosensory stimulations such as touch and pain share common neurophysiological and cognitive representations with the perception of the same experiences in others. However, it remains unclear what exactly is shared between an individual experiencing a state and someone observing this individual, and to what extent non-motor shared representations are supported by evidence. Here, we first review the different definitions of shared representations in the somatosensory domain proposed in the cognitive neuroscience literature. We then briefly describe the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying pain and touch perception and provide a critical review of the evidence for and against shared somatosensory representations for the different aspects of pain and touch experiences. Finally, we argue that these shared somatosensory representations can be modulated by individual, relational and contextual characteristics, and while most of these modulations occur implicitly, some can be deliberate, focused and meant to optimize subsequent social interactions.