Learn how to find out if a person blocked you on iMessage, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X (Twitter), and more.
Did you get into an argument with your friend, girlfriend, colleague, relative, or family member, and your messages and calls are not going through to them anymore? It’s possible they blocked your number. But how do you find out for sure?
There isn’t a hundred percent sure shot method unless you ask the person directly if they blocked you. But the tips below will take you closer and give you a good idea to know if you have been blocked by a particular person.
Reasons why you can’t reach someone
These are some of the reasons you cannot call, text, FaceTime, or iMessage someone:
- They have switched off the phone
- The phone is out of battery
- No cellular coverage or Wi-Fi
- They are traveling
- The phone is in airplane mode
- The phone is in Focus or Do Not Disturb (DND) mode
- Some issue with their SIM card
- They have misplaced their phone
- They have blocked your phone number
Before you begin: Please note that these methods only help you know to an extent whether someone blocked you or not. These aren’t definite methods. The only way to know for sure is to ask the person via other means or see their block list (a huge invasion of privacy).
Use the methods below to increase the certainty percentage of determining whether you’re blocked or not.
iMessage
When you block a person on your iPhone, they are blocked from iMessage, SMS texts, FaceTime, and phone calls. So, if you block someone or someone blocked you, this cuts off these four essential communication methods.
To know if someone blocked you on iMessage, open the Messages app and send them an iMessage. Now, wait for a few hours. If you don’t see the “Delivered” text below your most recent sent text, it’s an indication of the following four things:
1) They blocked you. In everyday situations, you might not think of this. But if you recently got into an argument or hurt them in some way, this can be the number one possibility.
2) Their iPhone isn’t connected to Wi-Fi or Cellular data for the last several hours, which almost no one does nowadays. If they keep their iPhone disconnected, that means they can’t use services like social media, YouTube, Uber, food delivery, maps, and such. So, most people do not stay offline for long unless it’s sleep or vacation time.
Also, you can turn off cellular data individually for most apps. However, iOS doesn’t offer a way to disable cellular data for the Messages app. So, if you don’t see the word “Delivered,” chances are, you’re blocked.
Ask someone else to send that person an iMessage, and if it says “Delivered,” you can be sure that you’re blocked as your sent message didn’t show you the “Delivered” status.
3) Their iPhone is in Focus or Do Not Disturb mode, which is why they have not received your notification (though ideally, even in DND, the sender sees the “Delivered” status below a message). You might even see a banner informing you that they have silenced the notifications (image below). All this means you aren’t blocked, but the person is just having some quiet time.
4) Their iMessage isn’t activated or has some problems.
So, after you send an iMessage and it stays undelivered for several regular hours or days, there is a strong possibility that the person has blocked you.
Lost iMessage capability: In my testing using my mother’s iPhone, I also noticed that if you’re blocked by the person, after a few messages, you might not see the iMessage option and blue text bubbles when you send a message. It may show as a green bubble SMS or show “Not Delivered” below it. I tested this with just one contact, so please take it with a pinch of salt.
Send as Text Message: If an iMessage stays undelivered, chances are their iPhone isn’t connected to the internet. So, in this case, you can touch and hold a sent iMessage and choose to Send as Text Message. See if you get a response to your SMS or not. If not, chances are the person has blocked you or is certainly ignoring you.
Standard phone calls
Imagine you call a person, and your call immediately goes to voicemail, or you hear the carrier response saying the number is busy, unavailable, and so forth. In that case, there is a strong possibility that:
1) You’re blocked by that person. When a person blocks you, calling them takes you to voicemail. You can send a voicemail, which will be listed in a section called “Blocked” at the bottom of their Voicemail screen. They can listen to it if they want. But most people ignore the voicemails in the “Blocked” tab.
Important: Often, when you’re blocked, you’ll hear just one ring, and then immediately, you’ll be informed that the number is busy.
2) They are in a place with no cellular coverage. In this case, you might hear a response like out of coverage area, unavailable, unreachable, etc.
3) The person has turned on a Focus mode or silenced unknown callers, because of which, they aren’t getting your call.
FaceTime
When you call someone on WhatsApp, and it rings, you see the word “Ringing.” This proves you aren’t blocked. But on FaceTime, whether you’re blocked or not, when you make a call, it has the same uninformative ringtone with no status like “calling” or “ringing” on the screen.
If you call a person via FaceTime and it repeatedly says “FaceTime unavailable,” that means:
- The person is ignoring your calls.
- Their FaceTime is not set up.
- Their iPhone isn’t connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data.
- You’re calling on their old number that isn’t on FaceTime. Try to call their new number or their Apple ID email (if you have it).
- They have blocked you on their iPhone. For this reason, you can’t FaceTime, iMessage, SMS, or call that person.
Use the search box on Facebook and type the name they use on Facebook. If the` person doesn’t appear in search suggestions of search results, they may have blocked you.
Another method involves searching for the person on Facebook Messenger. If they have blocked you, their profile will probably not appear in search results. And if you go to a previous conversation you had with them, it will say something like that person is unavailable or you can no longer send a message to them. In this case, you can rest assured that you have been blocked by them (or they have deactivated/deleted their FB account.)
You can also go to your Facebook friend list and type the person’s name. If that person was once a friend but now no longer appears in your friend’s list, that means they have blocked you or unfriended you.
Finally, if you have a person’s username, type their username after facebook.com/ and try visiting their profile while logged in to yours.
- If you’re not blocked, you will be able to see their profile, provided they have not deactivated or deleted their account.
- If it shows an error page, visit the same profile link in a private browser tab (while not being logged in to your FB account), and if you are able to see that their profile exists, this means you’re blocked by the person on Facebook.
X (Twitter)
X outright shows you if you’re blocked by an account. Simply go to their profile by using the search box, and there, you’ll see if they have blocked you or not.
If their profile doesn’t appear in search results, visit their profile via someone else’s post, repost, reply, etc. You can also search for their Twitter username on Google and then go to their profile from there.
Use the Instagram search box and type the person’s or account’s name or username. If you can’t find their account in the search results, you’re probably blocked by them.
In case their account was public (and not private), it may appear in the search results. But when you tap it to go to their profile, it will show “User Not Found” or “No Posts Yet – 0 posts, 0 followers, 0 following,” even though you once knew this person had many posts and followers.
Secondly, log in to Instagram on your computer. Now, if you know their username, type it after instagram.com/, and if they blocked you, it will say, “Sorry, this page isn’t available.” In this case, they either deleted their Instagram account, changed their username, or have blocked you. In most cases, it’s the last option.
Snapchat
You cannot see the Snapchat stories and Snapchat score of someone who has blocked you or unfriended you.
Also, if you search for their name in your friend list and they don’t appear, it’s an indication that they have blocked you, unfriended you, or deleted their account.
If you had previously chatted with this person on Snapchat, try to find their chat in your recent messages. If it doesn’t appear, they may have blocked you. And in case it shows up, go to their chat and send them a snap. If it repeatedly says something like “Failed to send your message – Tap to try again,” chances are they have blocked you.
Finally, you can get help from a friend (or your second Snapchat account). Search for the person on Snapchat, and if they show up in search results using this secondary Snapchat account but doesn’t when you search for them, this is a confirmation that the person has blocked you on Snapchat.
If you can’t see the person’s name, Status/Story, last seen, About text, or other such facts, it can be an indication that they blocked you. But note that some people hide these things from strangers and even contacts.
Secondly, if your sent message stays at a single tick for a few days, this might undoubtedly mean the person blocked you on WhatsApp. Calls made to this person will fail as well.
Additionally, when you try to add someone to a group, and it fails with a popup showing “you aren’t permitted to add them to your group,” chances are they blocked you. In newer versions of WhatsApp, you may be able to create a group with them. But immediately (to rule out the possibility of them manually leaving the group), when you go to that group profile, and the person is not under participants, that means they have blocked you.
Don’t be a stalker!
If you find out that you’ve been blocked by someone on FaceTime, SMS, iMessage, or other social media platforms, the right thing to do is to accept the blocker’s decision, respect it, and move on. The last thing you want to do is to become a stalker trying to get to this person who clearly doesn’t want to hear from you.
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