How to tell if someone blocked your phone number

You dial a number, but you’re not getting through. You’re frustrated. Maybe you’re a little anxious. What’s going on? Maybe the person you’re trying to get in touch with forgot their phone, or the battery is dead or it’s on silent or turned it off for some reason.

Or maybe they blocked your number, either by accident or on purpose. Want to know how to tell if someone blocked your number? You should know that when you block a number, you no longer receive calls or text messages from that person.

This can be helpful for stopping some unwanted spam calls, but it can also be used for personal reasons. Here’s what happens when you call someone who blocked you. You won’t get any sort of official notice if someone blocks your calls, but you can make an educated guess by looking for these signs.

Your calls are never answered

The first indication something’s up is you’re calling and sending text messages but you get no response. There are many reasons this might be happening, but a blocked number is one possibility.

For most cases, texts you send will appear to go through normally, but the person you’re sending them to won’t receive them. That radio silence is your first hint something might be up.

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A single ring sends you to voicemail

If you call a phone and hear the normal number of rings before getting sent to voicemail, then it’s a normal call. If you’re blocked, you would only hear a single ring before being diverted to voicemail.

An unusual ring pattern doesn’t necessarily mean your number is blocked. It may just mean the person is talking to someone else at the same time you’re calling, has the phone off or sent the call directly to voicemail. Try again later. If the one-ring and straight-to-voicemail pattern persists, then it may be a case of a blocked number.

Tip in a Tip: How to stop robocalls for good.

Automated responses

If you make a call and receive an automated message along the lines of “the customer is unavailable,” then you may have been blocked by that person’s wireless carrier. The messages can vary, but the result is the same. Your call won’t go through.

A blocked number isn’t the only reason for a message like this, but it can be a strong indication if you keep receiving the same message over several days.

Your texts look different

We covered calls. But you may be wondering how to tell if someone blocked your number from texting. As it turns out, there are a few different signs you can look out for through text.

So if you’ve ever found yourself Googling “How to know if someone blocked your number iPhone” or “How to tell if someone blocked your number Android,” we’ve got you covered.

Here’s how to know if someone blocked your number when you both have iPhones or Androids

1. Open iMessage (or your other messaging app)
2. Send a message and you’ll get a “delivered” confirmation — or you should.
3. If your previous texts were delivered but your most recent texts don’t have that label, you may have been blacklisted

It could be something else

How do you know if someone blocked your number? Don’t jump to conclusions based on suspicion alone. There may be a simple reason why your calls aren’t going through.

So before you find yourself researching something like, “How to know if someone blocked your number on iPhone,” take a breath and think. There could be a network problem, the person may have the phone turned off, the battery is dead or they forgot to renew their monthly calling plan on time.

One possible way to still get through is to disguise your phone number from the other phone. There are ways to hide your number from caller ID, either by changing your call settings or by downloading an app that will handle it for you.

Check out our guide to making anonymous calls. Just remember to use this power wisely. If someone really doesn’t want to hear from you, you may need to just respect that person’s decision.

There’s a fine line between just trying to get in touch and bothering someone. Don’t cross that line. If you’re concerned, then try reaching out over email, through snail mail, or through a family member or mutual friend.

We’ve all been there; you know you have the correct number, but your calls never get answered, and your texts are ignored. They could be busy, their phone could be dead, they’re on vacation, have no signal, or something else. Just because you can’t reach someone doesn’t necessarily mean they have blocked you.

Is there a way that you can tell if someone blocked your number? Unfortunately, there are no specific warnings or messages to tell you the person has blocked your number. However, it’s possible to figure out if someone has blocked your number, preventing your calls or texts from reaching them, with some detective work.

How Does Call Blocking Work?

When you use call blocking, a specific process is initiated. Your phone, landline, or cell informs the network that calls from a particular number should be blocked. This block is performed at the closest telephone exchange to your property on a landline. So the caller will make their call, it will traverse the network, get to the exchange that will deliver the call to your property, and stop there.

On a cellphone, the block is placed on the handset. The call transits the network and is delivered to your phone, but the phone doesn’t answer it. The caller is transferred directly to voicemail. This happens behind the scenes, so you will not know that a call was connected and refused. Because the call is transferred to voicemail, it’s difficult to tell you’ve been blocked. There are no direct indications that indicate you’ve been blocked.

Just because someone doesn’t answer your call does not mean they have blocked you. If you suspect they have blocked your number, there are a few things you can do to try to find out. These methods are far from perfect, but there’s not really a way to get a definitive answer.

Call From a Different Number

Cell phone call blocking is done based on the source number. The Operating System (e.g., iOS) recognizes the calling number, checks the block list, and will either allow or block according to whether it finds your number on the block list. The simplest way to find out whether someone blocked your number is to use a different number.

Because a blocked call and a disconnected phone number often act similarly, this is the most effective way to figure out if someone blocked your phone number.

Of course, not everyone has a second phone lying around. Another option for you is to use a free Google Voice number.

If the person you’re trying to reach has blocked you, the Google Voice number will be able to get through. However, if the person’s phone is dead or disconnected, neither number will be able to get through.

Withhold your number

If you type *67 on your US phone, the number is blocked from caller ID. The number transits across the network as usual, but it is held back at the final cell tower. This allows billing but stops your number from being presented to the called party.

As the block is on the cellphone itself and not the network, it will be delivered as usual. You can test whether your phone number has been blocked by withholding your number from the caller id system.

There are call-blocking apps that can work around this, but for an OS block (i.e., the call-blocking app that is set up using Android or iPhone iOS), the call should be delivered as usual. Some people automatically ignore withheld or private numbers, so bear that in mind when using this approach.

Send a Text Message

If you’re an Apple user, you can determine whether your number is blocked by sending a message. Send an iMessage to the person and watch the notifications. If that someone blocked your number, the status will never change to Read.

If it stays in Delivered status, they may have blocked your number. Keep in mind that some newer versions of Android also offer read receipts from other Android devices.

Confirm the Block

Odds are, at this point, you’ve figured out if you have or have not been blocked by the recipient of your phone calls. If your friend answers another phone number or that phone number doesn’t get the same message as you, you’ve been blocked.

Of course, if you’re trying to make amends, you could always contact the other person on a social media site or something similar, but this isn’t always a good idea.

Frequently Asked Questions

Getting blocked can put you in an incredibly difficult bind. If we didn’t teach you everything you wanted to know above, keep reading for the answers to more of our frequently asked questions.

If I dial *67, can I still get through if I’m blocked?

Based on our tests in April of 2022, this still works. If you dial *67, then the recipient’s full ten-digit phone number, your call will ring through. The recipient’s caller ID will say ‘Unknown Caller’ or something similar.

These days, this probably isn’t the best way to get the other person to answer, but you can tell by how the phone responds whether you’ve been blocked or not. If the feedback tone responds the same way as when you called from your number, the person is likely out of range of cellular service or having another issue.

However, you’ve probably been blocked if it rings just like normal.

How do I know if someone blocked my texts?

It’s more difficult to tell whether someone blocked your text messages. Assuming we’re using the native messaging app with their phone number, it won’t be too tricky, though. When someone blocks your phone number, they block you from texting and calling.

This means that you can use any of the methods we’ve listed above to know if someone has blocked your phone number from texts.

Know of any ways to determine if someone has blocked your number? Tell us about them below if you do!

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