How to Block Contacts in WhatsApp iOS App?

WhatsApp is one of the most popular chatting platforms for mobile devices. Problem arises when you have too many contacts and use the platform for killing your productive time. Some people really send too many messages throughout the day disturbing your routines. Though you can mute notifications on the mobile, it is not an ideal solution to block only the unwanted person. In this article, let us explain how to block contacts in WhatsApp so that you can reduce the disturbances.  

Related: How to block contacts in iPhone?

How to Block Contacts in WhatsApp?

The blocking procedure is very simple and similar on both Android and iOS operating systems. In this article, we will explain with the iOS app on iPhone.

• Launch WhatsApp and find the contact person you want to block and don’t want to bother you anymore.
• Tap on the last chat to view the conversation.
• On top of the conversation, you will see the name and profile picture of the contact person.
• Tap on the name to view more details.
• Go to the bottom of the screen and tap on “Block Contact” option.
• WhatsApp will show you a message indicating that the blocked contacts will not be able to call or send messages.
• In order to block the selected contact, you can either tap on “Block” or “Report and Block” option.

Block Vs Report and Block

Blocking a contact will immediately set the contact as blocked. The blocked person will continue to appear on your chat list unless you delete the chat conversation completely. The blocking action is revocable and you have to follow the same steps as blocking and tap on the “Unblock Contact” option to unblock anytime. However, you will never receive the messages sent to you from the contact while he or she was blocked. We recommend using this option for blocking and unblocking the contacts for particular period of time.

However, tapping on “Report and Block” option will send the contact details to WhatsApp and delete the chat history. Use this option when you feel the contact is a spam and disturbing you with irrelevant or personally attacking messages.

Muting a Contact

Instead of completely blocking messages and calls from a contact, you can also simply mute the notifications from a contact.

• Follow the above instructions to go to the details of the contact.
• Tap on “Mute” and choose the one of the options.

• WhatsApp iPhone app allows you to mute the notifications from a contact for 8 hours, 1 week or 1 year.

• You can again tap on “Mute” option and select “Unmute” to receive notifications.

It is also possible to mute the contact right from the chats section.

• When you are on the “Chats” section, swipe left on the contact.
• Tap on the “More” option and select “Mute”.

• Choose 8 hours / 1 week / 1 year to mute the selected contact.
• For unmuting, again swipe left on the contact, select “More” option and “Unmute”.

Related: WeChat Vs WhatsApp comparison.

Viewing All Blocked Persons?

When you block multiple contacts, it is difficult to remember the details of all the blocked contacts. Follow the below instructions to find all the blocked contacts.

• Launch the app and tap on “Settings” option on the bottom of the app.
• Tap on “Account” and go to “Privacy” section.
• You can see the blocked number of contacts against “Blocked” option.
• Tap on it and view the list of all blocked contacts.

You can also block new contact from this section and unblock the contacts by selecting the contact and choose “Unblock Contact”. 

What Does the Blocked Person See?

The simple answer is nothing. WhatsApp will not send notification to the blocked person. This is due to the privacy policy of WhatsApp that states as below:

We have made this intentionally ambiguous in order to protect your privacy when you block someone. Thus, we cannot tell you if someone else is blocking you.

However, on the same privacy page WhatsApp explains the symptoms of blocked by someone.

• Online status – WhatsApp shows the last online status of the contact. It will generally show online or the last time when the contact was online in WhatsApp. When someone blocked you, you will no longer see this last online status of the other person.
• Deliver status –  whenever the person read your message, WhatsApp will show double check mark against the message (if you have enabled read receipts option in settings). If the contact blocked you then you will only see a single tick mark against the sent message indicating no delivery of the message.
• You will not be able to call the contact.
• No update on the contact’s profile picture.

In the case of WhatsApp Web you can only silence the contacts but not block them. Also you can only mute or exit from the group chat and you can’t block all the contacts in a group.