What to Know
- You've likely been blocked if your call goes straight to voicemail.
- Seeing Read receipts, their Do Not Disturb status, or automated text responses means you're not blocked on iMessage!
- No Delivery notification beneath your last sent iMessagecan mean you're blocked.
With recent iPhone software updates, like iOS 16.5 and iOS 17, the signs that your number has been blocked continues to change. We'll show you the most reliable ways to tell if someone blocked your number, plus somespecific tips for how to knowif someone blocked you on iMessage. Let's dive in!
Jump To:
- How to Know If Someone Blocked You on iPhone
- What Happens When You’re Unblocked on iMessage
- FAQ
How to Tell If Someone Blocked Your Number on iPhone
We've tested across different software versions and devices to find the most accurate ways to tell whether you're blocked or the person is simply unavailable, out of service range, or has Do Not Disturb mode enabled.While these methods can give you great hints, there's not a foolproof method forhow to know if someone blocked you on iPhone. Below, we'll cover the red flags to look for if youcall or text.
1.To know if someone blocked you on iPhone, call them to see if you go straight to voicemail.
If you call the other personand the call goes straight to voicemail (with barely even one ring), you've likely been blocked.
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Here's what I discovered from having people block my number: the phone rings, but very briefly, not even a full ring before connecting to voicemail. I was able to leave a message as usual, but it appearsin a separate voicemail section on theiriPhone, calledBlocked Messages.While I was blocked, there was no way for the other personto know I'd called, and no notification about the blocked voicemail. This makesit highly unlikely the other person will see your voicemail unless they check blocked voicemails.
Keep in Mind: This is the surest way to know if someone blocked your number on an iPhone, but can also mean the other person has their phone powered off or doesn't have cell service.
Hide Caller ID to Call Someone Who Blocked You
If you need tocontact the person who has blocked your number, you can hideyour caller ID by using *67. However, westrongly recommend respecting people's privacy, anddo not recommend using this tipunless it's an emergency. When you hide your caller ID, this hides your phone number and allows the call to go through; it will show up as No Caller ID or a similar message on the other person's device. While hiding caller ID won't work with some carriers, using *67 or calling from another person's phone is your best option in an emergency.
What to Watch For: If you hide your caller ID and the call no longer goes straight to voicemail, this is a clear indicator that your number is blocked.
2.Check the delivery notification beneath yourlast text to see if you're blocked without calling.
Here's a great tip for how to tell if you'reblocked on iMessage: Look underneath the last text you sent.If you're blocked, you won't see "Delivered" below the most recent text bubble. However, with recent security updates, this tip depends on your iPhone software version. If you've updated to iOS 16.5 or later, you'll still see the "Delivered" notificationbeneath the last text you sent, even if you're blocked.
Note: Checking delivery notifications only works for iMessages (blue text bubbles). If the other person has an Android or the message sent as SMS (green text bubbles), your iPhone will not display delivery notifications.
3. If you see Read receipts, you're not blocked on iPhone.
If you send a text and the notification below says "Read" with the time, the other person and has received and opened your text, and you're definitely not blocked! There's no need to panic if you don't see the "Read" notification beneath your texts though—these can be disabled on the other person's deviceand doesn't necessarily mean you've been blocked.
4.Got an automated text response? Your number isn'tblocked!
If the other person has Do Not Disturb mode enabled or has the Driving Focus mode enabled, you might receive an immediate text response to your recent message saying that the other person isn't available to respond. If this happens, it is good news! You're definitely not blocked, because those auto-generated text responses don't go through to numbers that have been blocked on iPhones.
If you don't get an automated response (or any response), keep reading to learn about how to tell if someone blocked you on an iPhone.
5.The moon icon means you haven't been blocked on iMessage.
If you see a moon icon next to a conversation in Messages or above the text field in a chat, this means the other person has Do Not Disturb enabled and has text notifications silenced. If you're able to see their Do Not Disturb status (the moon icon), your number hasn't been blocked.
6.An iMessage Not Delivered error doesn't mean someone blocked your number.
This is a common myth, and the iMessage "Not Delivered" error just means your text didn't reach the other person! If you're seeing the iMessage Not Delivered error, enableSMS texts on your iPhone.This way, if an iPhone message fails to send via iMessage, your devicewill automatically reattempt to send thetext, or you can manually resend the text as an SMS message (green text bubble).
To resend an undelivered text, tap the red exclamation mark icon next to the message. Tap "Try Again" resendthe text as an SMS message.Unfortunately, if your SMS messagealso fails toreceive a reply, it's another sign that your number has beenblocked.
7. Green text bubbles do not mean you're blocked on iMessage.
Green text bubbles do not mean that your number has been blocked on iMessage. When you'reblocked, texts continue to send as usual. Green text bubbles only signal thatyour text has been sent via SMS instead of iMessage.
8.Check if you've been blocked on other third-party apps.
When someone decides to block you, they will often do so on social media and on any other third-party messaging apps. On apps like Facebook, Instagram, or WhatApp, there are obvious ways to tell if you've been blocked and is an indicator that your iPhone number has also been blocked. On Facebook and Instagram, you've been blocked if you can no longer see someone'sprofile or respond to a direct message conversation between you and the other person.
If Someone Unblocks You on iMessage, What Happens?
When someone unblocks you on an iPhone, they will receive all future texts and calls as they normally would from that point forward. You will not receive any sort of notification that you were unblocked, however, you will notice that your calls no longer go straight to voicemail. Blocked messages will not get delivered after your number is unblocked, so anything that you sent during the time that you were blocked will not be received. The other person can listen to the voicemails you sent while you were blocked, but they still have to navigate to the Blocked Messages section in the Phone app.
Now that you have a few helpful clues to check for in your texts and calls, you'll be able to tell with reasonable assurance whether your number has been blocked. If this has happened to you, hopefully, there's been a misunderstanding! However, if they did intend to block you and no longer want to be in contact, please respect their wishes and privacy. Next, learn how to schedule texts on your iPhone.
FAQ
- How do I know if an Android blocked me on iPhone?Calling is the best way to tell if an Android blocked you on iPhone. If you call someone and gostraight to voicemail (with barely one ring), you've likely been blocked. However, there's no definitive way to tell if you've been blocked by looking at text messages, since texts from iPhones to Androids will send as SMS (green text bubbles) without a "Delivered"or "Read"status.
- Will SMS texts be delivered if blocked on an iPhone? No text messages will be delivered after someone blocks you on an iPhone. This is true for both SMS texts (green message bubbles) and iMessage texts (blue message bubbles).
- If iMessage doesn't say Delivered, am I blocked?
For iOS 16.4 or earlier, this can signalyour number has been blocked, but it can also just mean themessages were not successfully delivered (which can happen if their phone is dead or there's no cell service). For iOS 16.5 or later, you'll see a delivery notification even if you're blocked. - Can you FaceTime someone who blocked you? Yes, you can place a FaceTime call if you're blocked, but the phone will ring once and go straight to voicemail similar to a regular call.A FaceTime "Unavailable" error message is also not a sign you've been blocked, it just means FaceTime isn't working properly.
- How many times does FaceTime ring if you're blocked? A normal FaceTime call with ring 10-12 times (for about 30 seconds). If you've been blocked, the FaceTime call will ring once or twice before going straight to voicemail.
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