27 September 2023

Ditching phone pests: How to block numbers on iPhone and Android

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Tom Bedford and Lloyd Coombes* detail the simple steps to block phone numbers on a smart phone to eliminate frustrating calls.


This will help you block spam texts and calls.

If you want to block a phone number and stop it calling or texting you, it’s generally pretty easy to achieve, but since different phones handle the process in different ways, it’s not always obvious how to do it.

That’s why we’ve come up with this guide on how to block numbers on your iPhone or Android device, as well as how to block texts and spam messages, so you can use your smartphone with peace of mind.

Knowing how to block numbers from calling and texting you can be really useful, whether you temporarily or permanently need a break from someone you know or someone you don’t.

So read on to find out how to block numbers on your phone – we’ve broken this guide into two sections, with the first covering how to do it on iPhone, then the second explaining how to do it on an Android phone.

How to block a number on an iPhone

There are two main ways to block a number in iOS, and both are relatively straightforward.

To block a contact, the easiest way is usually simply to head over to their page in the contacts list of your iPhone.

You’ll note at the bottom of the page there’s an option to ‘Block this Caller’, so press that and then confirm via the prompt that appears.

That number is now blocked!

The other method is to head into your settings menu, then select ‘Phone’ and from here, head into the sub-menu called ‘Call Blocking & Identification’.

Here you’ll find a list of all of your blocked numbers.

Scroll to the bottom for the option to block a contact, then simply select the contact you don’t want to hear from.

Sometimes you might want to block someone before they have a chance to contact you, and this is easy to do as well, just save them as a contact in your phone and then use one of the above methods.

How to block a number on an Android phone

Blocking a number on an Android phone is fairly similar to doing so on an iPhone.

Simply head over to your phone contacts list, find the number you want to block, tap the three vertical dots in the top right of the menu and select ‘block number’.

There isn’t a specific block list on Android phones, so you’ll have to add a number as a contact before you block it.

Since the blocked numbers are your contacts, it’s very easy to unblock numbers too, simply by repeating this process on an already-blocked number.

*Tom Bedford and Lloyd Coombes are staff writers at TechRadar.

This article first appeared at techradar.com

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