There are a lot of reasons that someone might block your number, but it’s not always easy to tell if your number has been blocked, especially without texting the person and seeing if your text message gets delivered/read or not.
First things first, we want to make it clear: Do not use the information on this page to harass anyone. If someone has blocked you, there’s almost never a good reason to keep trying to contact them. This applies to cases where the person has wronged you, owes you money, stole from you, etc. If they have done something illegal to you, then contact the police or a lawyer. Continuing to try to contact someone after they’ve blocked you and/or told you not to talk to them could be deemed as harassment, and you don’t want to get in trouble for that.
Okay, with that out of the way, here’s how to tell if someone has blocked your number without texting them. There are a few different things you can try.
1. Try Phoning Them
The first thing you can do is to phone the person that you suspect has blocked you. This might not be the ideal solution you’re looking for, since if you don’t want to text them, you probably don’t want to call them, either.
However, this can give you the information that you seek. If the call rings and rings, then it’s safe to assume that your number hasn’t been blocked. If your call goes straight to voicemail, this could be an indication that your number has been blocked, but it’s worth noting that this isn’t conclusive since there are a number of reasons a call could ring once then go to voicemail.
For example, they might have screened your call and sent it to voicemail after a ring. This would indicate that you aren’t actually blocked, but from your end, it looks the same as if your number was blocked.
If they actually answer the call, then you know your number isn’t blocked.
Other than that, this method can produce false-positives, so it’s only one piece of the puzzle. You’ll need to look at all of the other ways to tell if your number has been blocked that we’re going to cover in this article.
Protip: Dial *67 before dialing their number and you’ll be able to call from a masked number, meaning the recipiemnt won’t be able to see who is calling them. If you want to check if you’re blocked without having the person know you called them, this is your best bet.
Test this out with a friend first to make sure that it works!
2. Check Your Recent Call History
The following method is meant to be used on iPhone, but it could work on other types of phones, too. It’s worth a try, either way.
If you’ve previously called the number that you suspect has blocked you, meaning if you have called them before they may have blocked you, then this might give you a clue. All you’ve got to do is check your call history under “recent calls” and see if their number still shows up.
According to user reports, if you’ve had a call with someone on your iPhone in the past, and then they block you, the call history will disappear from your “recent calls” list.
This isn’t the best method since it mainly works on iPhone to iPhone calls, and also because calls will disappear from your recent calls for a variety of reasons, such as time, or if you have a lot of new recent calls to replace it on the list.
None the less, we’re going to suggest a lot of different methods. Some of them are better than others, some of them work more universally, and some of the yield more concrete results – but with stuff like this, it’s about taking in all of the information and data that you can, even if it’s not all 100% conclusive in determining if your number has been blocked or not.
3. Call or Text From a Different Number
Payphones aren’t very common anymore, but you can get a Google Voice number or another temporary/digital phone number. If you call from your normal number and it only rings once, you might be blocked but you can’t know for certain. If you follow that up by calling from a random number and it rings several times before going to voice mail, this helps paint a more complete picture and indicates that your number has, in fact, been blocked.
Be careful once you start hitting them up on different numbers, especially if they did block you or you have reason to believe they blocked you, because we’re getting into stalker/harassment territory once you start getting different numbers to circumvent a block.
It’s Hard To Tell If Someone Blocked You Without Texting Them
At the end of the day, there simply isn’t a bulletproof answer to how to tell if someone blocked your number without texting them. Using iMessage or a regular SMS text message is an easier way to tell if you’re blocked since you’ll be able to tell if the message was delivered or not, and that gives you probably 95% accuracy, however without texting, we can only use a handful of methods and our best guess, there’s no guaranteed way to tell.
What To Do When Someone Blocks Your Number
If you come to the conclusion that someone has blocked your number, you can handle this in different ways.
The way to respond to this kind of depends on why you think thy blocked you, who they are, what they mean to you, and so on. Here are some examples of times that someone may get their number blocked, and what is an appropriate reaction.
If You Get Blocked By Someone You’re Dating/Talking To
If you’ve started talking to someone and they stop responding, it could be that they’re ghosting you. Maybe their circumstances have changed, or maybe they just lost interest, and they don’t want to deal with the confrontation of being upfront about it. Either way, there’s nothing for you to do here but move on.
It’s unfortunate, but just remember that many people will overreacted, become threatening, and perhaps even dangerous when they’re faced with rejection, which in turn trains people to avoid rejecting people, which is unfortunate for good people like you who are just wondering what’s going on. So, the lesson is to not take it personally, especially if you don’t know each other that well yet.
Try to empathize that the person who blocked you without notice has probably dealt with some insane people in the past, which has trained them to act this way, even if it’s unfair to you to not get any kind of explanation.
If You Get Blocked By a Friend/Family Member
Being blocked by a friend without notice can be super hurtful! Especially if this is someone you’ve grown to care about, and especially when you aren’t actually sure if they’ve blocked you, or just aren’t responding, or if something’s actually wrong and they need help.
For someone who is a bit anxious, this feeling can be torture. You just want to make sure they’re okay, right? Sometimes, a person will need space and not know how to ask for it, so they’ll just result to blocking some people in their lives until they’re ready to talk.
This is tricky because sometimes, they could be going through a difficult time and isolating themselves from the people who want to help.
In any case, there’s only so much you can do for someone, especially if that person is actively pushing you away. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is to respect their wishes and deal with it later when they’re in a better place.
Sometimes, they might just not want to be friends anymore, or you’ve said something that really hurt them and they want to move on from the friendship. Regardless of what happened and whether or not they’re overreacting, the best move is to just move on.
You Might Have Been Blocked By Mistake
This final message isn’t to give false hope to someone whose been blocked/ghosted, but if you determine that a close friend or someone who would have no reason to block you, has indeed blocked you, it’s unlikely BUT possible that it actually happened by mistake.
In this case, it might be prudent to simply ask them (if you see them IRL) if they received your most recent message, or to have a mutual friend ask them on your behalf. This is kind of awkward and difficult to do, but if someone has in fact blocked you by mistake, then there isn’t really another way to sort it out.
If they’re messaging you like normal, but don’t seem to be responding to your messages or haven’t acknowledged your messages but they’ll still send you messages then it’s possible they blocked you by mistake and might even by wondering why you haven’t been replying to them.
When it’s all said and done, there are several ways to tell if someone blocked your number. However, most of the ways will give you some clues but won’t necessarily let you know conclusively, so there’s no perfect answer for how to tell if someone blocked your number without texting them, you’ll need to read some context clues and make your best guess, most of the time.
