It can be stressful not being able to contact someone when you need to. If your calls to another person’s phone are not going through, and it’s a mystery to you as to why, there are things you can do to determine if your number is blocked on iPhone.
WHAT TO KNOW
- To know if someone blocked you on iPhone, try sending both an iMessage and SMS message — if they are not delivered, you may be blocked.
- If you phone someone and your call go straight to voicemail, that is usually a sign of being blocked,.
- You can also try calling them using a different number or device.
What you should know about blocked numbers on iPhone
You can’t know for sure if someone has blocked your number on an iPhone without asking the person. However, if your iPhone calls and texts to a specific person don’t seem to be reaching them, your number might have been blocked.
It’s worth noting that undelivered messages could mean the phone has been switched off, for example. Phone calls going straight to voicemail could mean the person is just in an area with poor mobile phone coverage. Or the person could have their phone in Focus Mode or Airplane Mode.
If you’re looking for an approach that’s less awkward, we’ve got an easy workaround to determine if your number is blocked on iPhone.
How to tell if someone blocked you on your iPhone
Here are ways to check if your number is blocked on iPhone:
Check the color of your texts
You may have noticed that the text messages in your iPhone’s Messages app can appear as either green or blue.
The difference? Green messages are ordinary SMS text messages, while blue messages are using Apple’s proprietary iMessage format.
When you send an iMessage to someone who has blocked you, your message will look like a regular SMS text (green bubble) instead of the blue iMessage bubble. If you’re used to seeing blue iMessage text bubbles but they are suddenly green, it can be an indication you’ve been blocked.
Please note, there are different reasons why a message you send may appear green instead of blue, such as a poor cellular data connection. You can only use the green text bubble as a clue, indicating that you might be blocked.
Send them an iMessage
When you send an iMessage to another iPhone user who blocked you, the iMessage won’t be delivered. From your end, the Message app will say "Sent as Text Message" underneath a green bubble, indicating it was sent as an SMS message. However, even if you get a notification saying "Sent as Text Message," this is somewhat deceptive. Your message was sent but not delivered. The recipient’s device will never show your message. The recipient will have no idea you sent a message. If you are not getting a response and your messages keep being sent as SMS texts, it is highly likely you are blocked.
Send them an SMS message
When you send them an SMS and you get the "Delivered" notification underneath it, you weren’t blocked. If you get a notification like "Message Not Delivered" or you get no notification at all, that’s a sign of a potential block.
Give them a phone call
Unfortunately, when calling a person that has blocked your phone number, you won’t get any kind of notification about it. But there is one thing that сan hint that you’ve been blocked. If you notice that you get redirected to voicemail very soon after you started calling.
Don’t jump to any conclusions right away. Maybe the recipient has turned their phone off or is in an area with no service coverage.
But if this happens every time you call over a long period of time, chances are high that they might have blocked you.
Mask your number
If you’ve tried calling them a few times with no luck, try masking your number and then try calling them. However, this is heading a bit into harassment territory, so you need to be extremely careful here.
By masking your number, it will appear on their phone as No Caller ID or Unknown Number. Therefore, with no number available to block, your call should either be immediately picked up at the other end, or it will ring for more than one ring. If it does, your number has been blocked on an iPhone.
The quickest way to Mask your phone number is to use the *67 trick, which is referred to as "star six seven" for reference. This method has the benefit of being temporary, allowing you to block only singular calls, which is handy to know if you are blocked on iPhone.
- Open the iPhone’s Phone app.
- Type "*67" and then enter the rest of the number normally.
- Place the call. If it rings through normally with this masked phone number (or if the person answers), then that almost definitely means your number was blocked.
Turn off Caller ID
Similarly, by disabling caller ID in your phone’s settings, you can see if it’s just your number that’s having issues connecting to the other device.
- Open your iPhone’s Settings app.
- Scroll down to the Phone tab and tap it.
- Tap the "Show My Caller ID" tab.
- Toggle the button my "Show My Caller ID" off (so it’s white instead of green).
- Place the call. If it rings through normally with the iPhone’s Caller ID turn off (or if the person answers), then that almost definitely means your number was blocked.
Call from another phone
If you suspect someone is blocking your number, the quickest and easiest way to investigate further is to call from another phone. You can use an office phone or a pay phone (if you can find one) or borrow someone else’s phone—just make sure they know why you want to use it. Remember, your goal here is not necessarily to talk to the person in question, but to check the rings. If the number you’re calling rings multiple times from another phone, but only once on yours, there is a strong likelihood they are blocking you.
Now You Know the Truth
With the methods listed above, you can get a good idea whether you’ve been blocked on iPhone or not. But since there is no way to know for sure, it still best to speak with that person directly.
Who knows, maybe they blocked your phone number by mistake. By talking to them, you should show them how to unblock you and get your communication back on track.