Apple rolled out a couple of exciting features with iOS 7 update. Perhaps the most exciting of these is the option to block contacts. Before the update, we were at the mercy of telemarketers and butt diallers. Yes, it was very annoying.
Although we had an option of using a third-party apps, most iPhone users preferred the simplicity of being able to block mortal enemies without visiting the app store. If your iPhone is running iOS 7 or later, you’re in luck. With a couple of taps, you’ll not only block unwanted phone calls but text messages as well. Here is how to do it.
Related: How to pair iPhone with Mac using Bluetooth?
How to Block Contacts on iPhone?
- Block callers in Phone app.
- Block contacts in Messages
- You can block from FaceTime
- View all blocked contacts
- How to unblock a contact?
- What happens when you block?
- Caller ID and blocking apps
- Blocking contacts on Email
You should also know that when you block a contact you would be blocking the phone calls, messages and FaceTime. In other words, you cannot prevent a contact’s call or message separately on an iPhone. It’s a packaged deal.
1. How to Block Callers on iPhone?
Follow the steps outlined below to block unwanted calls from contact on your iPhone.
- Tap the “Phone” icon on your home screen.
- Select “Contacts” to access your contact list.
- Select the contact person you intend to block from the list. If you want to block a recent caller then tap on “Recents” tab and choose the information icon button on the caller number.
- Scroll down on the contact’s page and tap “Block this Caller” option.
- Confirm again by pressing “Block Contact” to block the person.
Block Caller in iPhone
2. How to Block Contact in Messages?
Apple introduced a new spam filtering feature in iOS 12. This will help to automatically filter and group the spam messages separately as “Unknown Senders”. Also you can report a spam message to Apple as a junk to help in identifying spams.
another method of blocking unwanted messages from a contact. Here is how to do it.
- Tap the “Settings” icon on your home screen.
- Scroll down and select “Messages”.
- Tap “Blocked” to Add a new contact to your blocked list.
Add New Contact to Block
Alternatively, you can open Messages app and open the message from the sender. Tap on the sender name on top and choose info icon. Again tap the name to open the contact in Phone app. Here you can block the contact as explained above with Phone app.
3. Block Contacts from FaceTime
Similar to Phone and Messages, you can block contacts from FaceTime app or from “Settings > FaceTime”.
- Open FaceTime app and tap on the info icon showing next to the caller name.
- On next screen, choose “Block this Caller”.
- Alternatively, go to “Settings” app, scroll down and tap on FaceTime app.
- Tap on “Blocked” option and select “Add New…” to add a new contact to the blocked list.
Related: How to block websites in iPhone?
4. How to View All Blocked Callers List?
When you start blocking many people on your contact list, you will end up forgetting the numbers you have blocked. It may not be possible after some time to remember the caller you have blocked. iPhone offers a handy feature to get the list of all blocked numbers.
- Tap on “Settings” icon.
- Scroll down and tap on the Phone app.
- Go to “Call Blocking & Identification” option.
Call Blocking and Identification
- Here you can view the list of all blocked caller names.
- From this settings page also you can block specific caller.
- Tap on “Block Contact…” option and select the number you intend to block from your contact list.
You can also view all blocked contacts from the settings page of Messages and FaceTime app.
5. How to Unblock a Caller?
Sometimes you might have temporarily blocked your known friend’s number to avoid disturbance. Though you can enable do not disturb mode, it is handy to block caller from Phone app. You can open Phone app and tap on the contact. At the down, select “Unblock this caller” to allow calls from the contact.
6. What Happens When You Block Number?
When you block the contact, the caller will not know that you have blocked him or her. When they try to call you, mostly they will hear a busy message like “the number you have dialed is busy”. They can send a voicemail, however you will never receive it.
Similarly the blocked contact can still send a message to you, but you will never receive that message.
Related: How to setup parental control in iPhone?
7. Caller ID and Blocking App
Most of the time the spammer will call from an unknown number. There are apps like Hiya allows you to view the real caller id and block spam calls. The app also allows you to do reverse lookup and find the details of an incoming call.
Hiya iOS App
8. Blocking Contact Email on iPhone
Unfortunately, there is currently no way of preventing a contact’s mail using the default email client on iPhone. In this case, you must either log into your email on your computer to block the contact or create a set of rules using the email client on your Mac OS. However, you can still mark the sender a junk and send all the emails directly to junk folder.
- Open Mail app and swipe in left direction on the email you want to mark as junk.
- Select “More” option and then choose “Mark”.
- Tap on “Move to Junk” to send the selected email to junk folder.
Mark Email as Junk
- Henceforth, any email received from that sender will be automatically sent to junk folder.
- You can go to junk folder and mark the email as not junk to whitelist the sender again.
To Wrap Up
As you can see, blocking contact’s call or messages on an iOS device is not as complicated as you imagined. And even though you can’t block an email on iPhone, doing it on a desktop is just as easy. Or you can mark the sender as junk.
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