What to Know

There is no definitive way to tell if you've been blocked on iPhone.
One way to tell if you possibly have been blocked is if your call goes straight to voicemail.
Seeing Read receipts, their Focus status, or automated text responses means you're not blocked on iMessage.

With recent iPhone software updates, like iOS 27, the signs that your number has been blocked continue to change. We'll show you the most reliable ways to tell if someone blocked your number, plus some specific tips for how to know if someone blocked you on iMessage. Let's dive into how to know if someone blocked you.

How to Tell If Someone Blocked Your Number on iPhone

How do you know if someone blocked you? Unfortunately, there isn't really a foolproof way to know for sure whether or not someone has blocked you. But we've tested across different software versions and devices to find the most accurate ways to tell whether you're blocked or the person is simply unavailable, out of service range, or has a Focus mode enabled. Below, we'll cover how to know if someone blocked your number.

1. How to tell if someone blocked you on iPhone by checking if your calls go straight to voicemail

If you call the other person and the call goes straight to voicemail (with barely even one ring), you've likely been blocked.

Here's what I discovered from having people block my number: the phone rings, but very briefly, not even a full ring, before connecting to voicemail. I was able to leave a message as usual, but it appears in a separate voicemail section on their iPhone, called Blocked Messages. While I was blocked, there was no way for the other person to know I'd called, and no notification about the blocked voicemail. This makes it highly unlikely the other person will see your voicemail unless they check blocked voicemails.

Keep in Mind

This is the surest way to know if someone blocked your number on an iPhone, but can also mean the other person has their phone powered off or doesn't have cell service.

Hide Caller ID to Call Someone Who Blocked You

If you need to contact the person who has blocked your number, you can hide your caller ID by using *67. However, we strongly recommend respecting people's privacy, and do not recommend using this tip unless it's an emergency. When you hide your caller ID, this hides your phone number and allows the call to go through; it will show up as No Caller ID or a similar message on the other person's device. While hiding caller ID won't work with some carriers, using *67 or calling from another person's phone is your best option in an emergency.

What to Watch For

If you hide your caller ID and the call no longer goes straight to voicemail, this can indicate that your number is blocked.

2. Seeing Read Receipts? You're not blocked!

Some people like to enable Read Receipts on their iPhone. So if you send a text and the notification below says "Read" with the time, the other person has received and opened your text, and you're definitely not blocked. There's no need to panic if you don't see the "Read" notification beneath your texts, though—this setting is completely optional, and not everyone will have it enabled. If your most recent text just says "Delivered," all that really means is that the other person does not have Read Receipts enabled. In any case, here's how to know if you have been blocked by checking read receipts:

a read receipt under a sent message on iphone

3. Got an automated text response? Your number isn't blocked!

If the other person has Do Not Disturb mode enabled or has the Driving Focus mode enabled, you might receive an immediate text response to your recent message saying that the other person isn't available to respond. If this happens, it's good news! You're definitely not blocked, because those auto-generated text responses don't go through to numbers that have been blocked on iPhones. Here's how to know if someone blocked you when you get an automated response:

you aren't blocked if you get a automated response

If you don't get an automated response (or any response), keep reading to learn about how to tell if someone blocked your number.

4. The moon icon means you haven't been blocked on iMessage.

If you see a moon icon next to a conversation in Messages or above the text field in a chat, this means the other person has a Focus mode, such as Sleep or Do Not Disturb, enabled and has text notifications silenced. If you're able to see their Focus status (the moon icon), your number hasn't been blocked. You can tap Notify Anyway if the message is important.

you are not blocked on iphone it you see a focus mode icon

5. An iMessage Not Delivered error doesn't mean someone blocked your number.

The iMessage "Not Delivered" error just means your text didn't reach the other person. If you're seeing the iMessage Not Delivered error, check to make sure you have RCS/SMS texts enabled on your iPhone. This way, if an iPhone message fails to send via iMessage, your device will automatically reattempt to send the text, or you can manually resend the text as an RCS/SMS message (green text bubble).

To resend an undelivered text, tap the red exclamation mark icon next to the message. Tap Try Again to resend the text as an RCS/SMS message. Unfortunately, if your RCS/SMS message continues to fail and also fails to receive a reply, that is a sign that your number may have been blocked.

not delivered under a message does not mean you are blocked on iphone

6. Green text bubbles do not mean you're blocked on iMessage.

Why are your messages green when they should be blue? Green text bubbles do not mean that your number has been blocked on iMessage. When you're blocked, texts continue to send as usual. Green text bubbles only signal that your text has been sent via RCS/SMS instead of iMessage.

7. Check if you've been blocked on other third-party apps.

When someone decides to block you, they will often do so on social media and on any other third-party messaging apps. On apps like Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp, there are obvious ways to tell if you've been blocked, and this is an indicator that your iPhone number has also been blocked. On Facebook and Instagram, you've been blocked if you can no longer see someone's profile or respond to a direct message conversation between you and the other person.

If Someone Unblocks You on iMessage, What Happens?

When someone unblocks you on an iPhone, they will receive all future texts and calls as they normally would from that point forward. You will not receive any sort of notification that you were unblocked, but you will notice that your calls no longer go straight to voicemail. Blocked messages will not get delivered after your number is unblocked, so anything that you sent during the time that you were blocked will not be received. The other person can listen to the voicemails you sent while you were blocked, but they still have to navigate to the Blocked Messages section in the Phone app.

Those are all the ways to know if someone blocked you on iPhone. Now that you have a few helpful clues to check for in your texts and calls, you'll be able to tell with reasonable assurance whether your number has been blocked. If this has happened to you, hopefully, there's been a misunderstanding! However, if they did intend to block you and no longer want to be in contact, please respect their wishes and privacy. Next, learn how to schedule texts on your iPhone, and be sure to subscribe to our free Tip of the Day.

FAQ

If you block someone on iPhone can they tell? There is no foolproof way for someone to know if they have been blocked. The best they can do is use the methods above to try and deduce whether or not they have been blocked.
How do I know if an Android blocked me on iPhone? Calling is the best way to tell if an Android blocked you on iPhone. If you call someone and go straight to voicemail (with barely one ring), you've likely been blocked. However, there's no definitive way to tell if you've been blocked by looking at text messages, since texts from iPhones to Androids will send as RCS/SMS (green text bubbles), which can still have a "Delivered" or "Read" status.
Will RCS/SMS texts be delivered if blocked on an iPhone? No text messages will be delivered after someone blocks you on an iPhone. This is true for both RCS/SMS texts (green message bubbles) and iMessage texts (blue message bubbles), but you will still see the "Delivered" status under the message.
If iMessage doesn't say Delivered, am I blocked? On older versions of iOS, you used to be able to reliably tell that you were blocked by just checking if your texts were being delivered. If you didn't see "Delivered" under a text, that meant you were blocked. However, after iOS 16.5 was released, this was changed. Nowadays, you'll always see "Delivered" under the last text you sent, even if you're blocked.
Can you FaceTime someone who blocked you? Yes, you can place a FaceTime call if you're blocked, but the phone will ring once and go straight to voicemail, similar to a regular call. A FaceTime "Unavailable" error message is also not a sign you've been blocked; it just means FaceTime isn't working properly.
How many times does FaceTime ring if you're blocked? A normal FaceTime call with ring 10–12 times (for about 30 seconds). If you've been blocked, the FaceTime call will ring once or twice before going straight to voicemail.