How to Tell If Someone Blocked Your Cell Phone Number

It’s not always easy to tell if someone has blocked you as you do not get an alert that you have been blocked. Follow these tips to determine if someone is blocking your calls.

Call Behavior

You can best tell if someone has blocked you by calling the person and seeing what happens. If your call is sent to voicemail immediately or after just one ring, this usually means that your number has been blocked. You may be able to leave a voicemail message, even if you are blocked by the recipient; however, the recipient will not be alerted about your message.

Note that even if your call gets immediately sent to voicemail, it may not be blocked. This might just indicate that your recipient's phone is turned off or set to automatically send all calls to voicemail.

A quick way to check whether or not your number has been blocked is to call the other person anonymously. Make an anonymous call by typing in *67 before the number you are calling. If the call is sent to voicemail again, then your number has not been blocked; however, if the call is not sent to voicemail, then your number has been blocked by the other person.

Messages

Another way to tell if you’ve been blocked by the other person is to look at the delivery status of text messages sent. This is easy to check if using the iPhone, as iMessage texts may show only as “Delivered” but not “Read” by the recipient. Note that just because the message status doesn’t state "Read," this does not definitively mean that the message has not been read. It’s possible that the recipient does not have “Show messages as read” enabled on her iPhone. Also note that you usually cannot tell whether you’ve been blocked on Android devices, as there is no built-in message tracking system like the iPhone has with iMessage. You may be able to use an anonymous number texting or calling app like Hushed, Burner or Sideline to see if texts get through and are answered from that number.

Rule Out Other Possibilities

Rule out other possibilities before assuming that you have been blocked. If you are sent to voicemail right away with every call you make to a person, then this is a good indication that you have been blocked. However, you should try calling again a few hours later to make sure that your recipient hasn't simply turned his phone off. Features like Do Not Disturb mode automatically decline calls or send them straight to voicemail even if you have not been blocked.

Try the *67 method or turn off Caller ID on your phone before calling a number to make sure your recipient hasn’t enabled Do Not Disturb. If your calls get through using either method, this may mean your number has been blocked.