You can easily block phone numbers on your iPhone or iPad if you do not want to get calls or texts from those numbers. For example, you may want to block the same telemarketers that keep calling you, or there may be someone in your life you never want to contact again. Blocking enables you to take control and decide who can contact you. Sometimes, however, you may wonder if you can call or text the people you
blocked. You may further wonder if you would need to unblock them before sending a text, iMessage or placing a call. In this article, I provide answers to these questions. When a blocked number texts you, you won’t receive the message. However, you can still text the number, and the other person will receive the message. If they decide to respond to your text, you won’t get the reply. The reply won’t be delivered so long as the number is blocked. However, if you are sending an iMessage, your message won’t say Delivered or Read, as it would normally, because the Message app won’t get anything back to confirm the delivery or read receipt from the other party. You will still be able to send the message as an iMessage, so the message will have a blue bubble instead of green one if you are texting an Apple device. Can you call a blocked number?A blocked number can call you and leave you a voicemail, but your phone won’t ring, and you won’t receive any notifications; you won’t know about the call until you check your voicemail. When the blocked person calls, they won’t know that they are blocked. You can still call your blocked contacts. Their phone will ring as it normally would. It won’t go straight to voicemail. If they answer the phone, you can talk normally. You do not have to unblock them first to call a blocked contact. How to block or unblock a number or contactAs I explained above, the blocking feature only blocks incoming calls or texts. Your outgoing calls or texts won’t be affected. Your iPhone or iPad makes it very easy to block and unblock people or numbers. You can use the Phone, FaceTime or Messages apps. Just follow these steps:
If you want to unblock a number, simply repeat the same steps, but this time, tap Unblock this Caller. You can also manage your blocked list:
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 Dr. Serhat Kurt worked as a Senior Technology Director. He holds a doctoral degree (or doctorate) from the University of Illinois at Urbana / Champaign and a master’s degree from Purdue University. Here is his LinkedIn profile. Post navigationRobotPoweredHome is reader-supported. When you buy through links on my blog, I may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I’ve been receiving a lot of unsolicited marketing calls lately, and I try blocking every number that I suspect is a marketing team trying to spend money on things I don’t need. I wanted to completely block them from getting in touch with me, even through texts, but I didn’t know if blocking their number also blocked them from texting me. So to know if my efforts to block these numbers also blocked any messages from them, I decided to go online and find out more. My research took me through several user forums and promotions about blocking software which helped me understand what blocking a number actually does and how it was effective. Thanks to the several hours of research that I spent learning about blocking contacts when you reach the end of this article which I had created with the help of that research, you’ll know if blocking a number on your phone also blocked texts from them. In most cases, if you block a number on your phone, they won’t be able to text you either. They have to use a third-party messaging service where you haven’t blocked them already to send messages to you. Continue reading to find out how you can completely block someone on any mobile device and how blocking works. Does Blocking A Number Block Texts?The blocks you do on your phone by selecting the contact from your list of contacts would also block messages depending on your phone’s model. If you’re on iPhone, blocking the number from the Contacts app will block the device on all of its in-built means of communication, including calls, SMS messages, FaceTime and iMessage. For Android devices, blocking a number will only stop calls and SMS’s from coming through, and all other means are left open. If you want to completely block out someone, you’ll need to manually block them from every social media service you are on, one at a time. This means that if you have an account on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram, you’ll need to block the individual on all four platforms so that they can’t contact you anywhere. So you’ll have to block the person on all of your socials, and not just from your contacts list, because your phone cannot control who you block on other social media services. What Does Blocking Do?When you block someone on your phone, it is your phone doing all the blocking since your phone provider sends messages and calls from the blocked number to your phone anyway. So any calls, messages or texts you receive on the built-in SMS, calls and video calling apps will be blocked by your phone. When you block the number, they can still call and message you, but you won’t get the call, and the message being sent won’t be delivered either. You won’t be notified if they have left a voicemail, but you can still see them and delete them if required. This is the same for almost all third-party messaging apps, with you, the recipient, never being notified of the message or call. Blocking works almost the same everywhere so that people have a general idea of how it works to let them use it more effectively. How To Block Texts On iOSIf you’re still receiving texts from the blocked number on iOS, you might need to block the number from the Messages app manually. To do this:
You can also block them on any other social media websites that you haven’t done already to stop any means of communication with you. How To Block Texts On AndroidYou can block messages on Android by following the steps described below:
You can later unblock them by going into the app’s settings and looking for the Spam & blocked section. Can They Know You’ve Blocked Them?The best part about blocking a number on any platform is that the other person will never know what they’ve been blocked unless they know what to look for. Any messages you might be sent won’t be delivered, which you can later attribute to network issues or software bugs if asked. Calls, on the other hand, will start ringing and then will change to a line busy tone halfway through. It is almost the same case with video calls, which won’t go through at all if the recipient blocks your number. The person being blocked won’t be told that these services have blocked them once you do so. They won’t get notified if you unblock them either, and they’ll have to send you a message to know. Final ThoughtsYou can also use third-party blocking apps if the person you blocked somehow got through to you. I would recommend Truecaller or Hiya for this since they have a pretty sizeable community-contributed database of phone numbers. They can block calls or texts your phone might have missed and are entirely free to use. There is a premium subscription for these services, but it is optional and only expands on the basic features already there. You May Also Enjoy Reading
Frequently Asked QuestionsWhere do blocked texts go?Blocked texts usually aren’t deleted, but you can’t view them in most cases, even if you’ve unblocked them. Some phones store blocked and spam messages in a separate folder where you can read them. Do blocked messages get delivered when unblocked?Any messages you send to the recipient are never delivered, even if they unblock you. They’ll only start getting messages from you after they’ve unblocked you. How do you tell if your texts are blocked?You can assume you’ve been blocked if any of your messages are stopped from being delivered if you could talk to them some time ago. You can also try messaging someone else to ensure it isn’t a network issue. What happens when you call a blocked number?If you call a number that has blocked you, you will immediately either hear a line busy tone or be redirected to voicemail after a few rings. Some phones take you to voicemail immediately after the first ring. Can you text someone you blocked on iPhone?Blocking someone affects texts sent to you. It does not affect texts that you send to them.
Can someone still text you if you block their number?For Android devices, blocking a number will only stop calls and SMS's from coming through, and all other means are left open.
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If you have someone blocked can you still text them
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