How To Tell if Someone Blocked you from Sending Text Messages

Having a conversation with a person you like over text messages and they suddenly stop replying? This must have left you wondering if they have blocked you from sending them text messages. While the best way to figure this out is to directly ask the person, it may not always be a comfortable approach.

But if you genuinely didn’t intend to harass someone and are unsure of your current situation with them, we can help you. In this guide, we’ll discuss a few ways that you can use to know if someone blocked you from sending text messages.

What Happens When Someone Blocks Your Phone Number?

When you are blocked by someone, you won’t be able to send any new messages or call them. When you send a message, your phone will show that the message is sent or delivered, but the recipient won’t receive it. You can try sending a message from a different number and see if they respond. 

Even if you have the best Android phone or the latest iPhone available in the market, it won’t notify you when someone blocks you. However, there are a few things you can do to check if someone blocked you. 

When you call a number, you may hear one ring or nothing at all before it goes to voicemail. You should hear the ring multiple times if that person hasn’t blocked you. In some cases, carriers will bypass voicemail and notify you that the receiver is busy or unavailable before automatically disconnecting the call. 

You can call that person, leave a voicemail, and wait a few days. If you don’t hear back from them, it’s likely because they have blocked you and didn’t relieve your call or voicemail. You can also ask a friend to call that person. If their call goes through and yours doesn’t, that person has indeed blocked you.

Can You Tell if Someone Has Blocked Your Texts?

Unfortunately, if you use standard SMS on your phone, you’ll never get an alert when someone blocks you. As par for the course in the digital age, there aren’t any apps that send a bright flashing message that notifies you when someone blocks you. 

Remember that blocking a cell phone number acts very similar to changing your phone number or disconnecting it. Your friend or contact may have simply updated their number and forgotten to inform you.

Also, it isn’t possible to block texts without blocking phone calls. If you can call someone but your messages aren’t getting through, there could be another issue.

There are some tale-tell signs that the recipient has blocked your phone number. If someone isn’t responding to your texts, there are a few things you can do to determine whether they have blocked you or not. 

1. Depending on the circumstances of the last conversation – This may be obvious, but if your contact said something like “I’m blocking you!” and now you aren’t able to get them to respond to your texts, they have probably blocked you.
2. You can get through by using another person’s phone number – Try calling the individual from a different number. If there’s an error message, they might have disconnected their number. If the call goes through just fine, they have indeed blocked you.
3. The Read Receipts – This works for iPhones and newer Androids. Assuming the contact has read receipts turned on, you can easily determine if the message receipts have blocked you.

There are a lot of reasons to suspect that someone blocked your texts if you aren’t able to get through. Understanding the signs listed above is a great start.

In case you were having a conversation with someone on Instagram and they suddenly stopped replying, here’s how you can check if you are blocked on Instagram.

Troubleshooting

Technology isn’t perfect. Someone could be completely out of the network or service area. Try some troubleshooting before making conclusions. There are a lot of reasons your texts may not go through.

1. iPhone Users – iPhone uses the iMessage feature to send messages to other users. If you’re not getting through to an Android user, ensure that Send as SMS is turned on in Settings (Settings > Messages > Send as SMS). If your phone is sending an iMessage to an Android, it simply won’t go through. 
2. Android Users – If you’ve previously had an iPhone and upgraded to an Android, you have to deregister your number on iMessage. Visit Apple’s official website and disconnect your phone number from iMessage, as it can prevent you from sending messages.
3. Check the Contact – Go to your contacts and ensure the number includes the area code. Then try the message again.

While healing a ‘number unobtainable’ message when you call that number could be a network error, it can also happen when someone blocks you. The exact message differs depending on the network, but it might be something like, “Sorry, the number has not been completed as dialed.”

Call your carrier, try calling another contact who uses the same carrier, or wait a few days. If you’re still able to call other numbers like normal but aren’t able to connect with one person, they might have blocked you.

Text Messaging vs. Chat Apps

When sending a text message, you compose and send the message on your phone, the phone OS packages it up so the cell network can understand it, and then the message is sent. The closest receiving cell tower acknowledges your message and adds a mark to your account to keep track of how many SMS you have sent for billing. That is the only feedback mechanism currently available in the cell network.

Purpose-built messaging networks such as iMessage, WhatsApp, and Telegram do things differently. They had the advantage of a clear plan before building their network, and ‘feedback to sender’ was one of the key elements they all wanted to include.

Cell networks evolved, whereas chat networks could be built from the ground up with the primary vision in mind. That’s why you see ‘Delivered’ or ‘Read’ when you send messages using these apps. It’s also why third-party chat apps tend to offer more features and a better experience than factory-installed SMS messaging apps.

You may use the data network of your cell company, but the messaging is controlled by the servers owned by the chat app.

How Does Blocking Work on Phones?

You only have a few options to find out if someone blocked you from texting them. You could try messaging them through WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram, Snapchat, Facebook, or one of the numerous other applications that use your phone number to enable communication.

Message the person on a different medium to see if they answer. If you see a ‘Delivered’ message or equivalent but get no reply, it’s a sign that they’re ignoring you.

The person who blocked you has no idea that you tried to send a message. Newer phones make it so easy to block someone that all you have to do is click on the contact or phone number and hit the Block button.

Now You Know!

People may accidentally block you and not realize it until they check the Phone app for blocked numbers. However, if every attempt to connect fails, it might be time to leave it. While it can be devastating when someone blocks you, the last thing you should do is spam them. By doing that, you could irritate them even more and make the situation even worse.

Not knowing whether someone blocked you or not can be incredibly uncomfortable.

Found this post helpful? Check out our guide about how to forward email to your phone as a text message next.

If you have more questions, we’ve included some more answers below!

Frequently Asked Questions