Do you use TextNow to text or call people, and are wondering whether or not someone may have blocked you?
Thankfully, finding out is pretty straightforward, and there are a few things you can do to determine whether or not you’ve been blocked.
In this article, I’ll be sharing each one of these, as well as answering some other common questions about having your TextNow number blocked.
Let’s begin!
How To Know Whether Someone Blocked Your TextNow Number
Unfortunately, it is difficult to know for certain whether or not you’ve been blocked, as TextNow does not have any function that will automatically tell you.
However, by trying each one of these strategies out, you can gain a near-certainty whether you’re been blocked for sure.
1. Call, And Monitor The Number Of Rings
One of the first things you should do is to use TextNow’s calling feature to place a call to the person you believe may have blocked you.
On a normal phone call, the phone will ring 4 to 5 times before it reaches voicemail, which lasts between 25-30 seconds after the call is placed.
However, on some phones, you will be sent immediately to voicemail if the person has blocked you.
Note that this is different than the person simply declining your call.
If your call is declined, it will typically ring 1-3 times before you are sent to voicemail. If you’re blocked however, you will be sent to voicemail straight away.
Of course, if the receiver of the call has do not disturb mode turned on, or their phone is turned off, this can also cause calls to be sent to voicemail immediately.
So, it’s best to combine this strategy with others I’ll share below to gain a better idea.
2. Send A Text And See If You Get A Response
This may be one of the most obvious ones, but it’s still worth trying out.
Send a text message to the number that you may be blocked, and monitor whether or not you receive a response back. For best results, send a question that’s easy to answer and won’t take a lot of time for them to send a text back to you.
If you receive any response at all, you’ll know that you aren’t blocked.
If you’ve talked with this person before, you can look over your previous messages to get the average amount of time it takes them to respond.
If a significant amount of time has passed, it’s quite possible that they’ve blocked you.
3. Call, And Look Out For New Voice Messages
When placing a call to the person you believe may have blocked you, be on the lookout for unique messages that you don’t typically hear when calling people.
A few examples may include:
- “This call could not be completed as dialed.”
- “The phone number you are trying to reach is unavailable.”
- “The number you are calling is currently offline.”
And so on.
If you are blocked at the carrier level, the phone calls may never even reach the recipient in the first place.
If this happens, you may get a message similar to the ones mentioned above.
This almost certainly means that are you are blocked!
4. Try Calling With A Different Phone Number
So, how do you know whether or not the issue is affecting just your specific TextNow number, or it’s affecting everyone?
You try calling with a different number!
Try calling the number with a different phone, and seeing what happens.
If you have the same error messages or you are also sent to voicemail on the new number, it’s likely that you are not blocked.
If however your calls go through fine with a new number but don’t go through when you try calling using TextNow, this means your TextNow number is almost certainly blocked.
For best results, try using a separate phone number that the recipient isn’t aware of. Otherwise, they may have blocked both of your numbers, which would make it harder to test this out.
Frequently Asked Questions About TextNow, And Blocking
Now, let’s look over some frequently asked questions regarding TextNow, and blocked numbers
Will TextNow Support Be Able To Tell You If You’re Blocked?
No, TextNow support is unable to tell you if you’ve been blocked by a specific person.
Unfortunately, they have no way of accessing this information themselves, so they are unable to check for you. Because the blocking is being done entirely by the other person’s phone (and your number doesn’t actually get a notification for it), they have no way of finding out, either.
The only person that can tell you if you’re blocked is the other person, and their cellular carrier.
Is There Any Way To Tell If Your Message Has Been Read?
Unfortunately, there is no way to know whether or not your message has been read while using TextNow.
TextNow operates over the traditional SMS system, and does not currently support read receipts.
Is There Anyway To Circumvent A Block
Yes. If a person has truly blocked your TextNow number, you can always change your TextNow number in order to essentially ‘unblock’ yourself.
This would require the person to block your number as soon as you reach out to them.
However, I strongly encourage you to respect the person’s will to leave you blocked, and avoid taking steps to contact them anyway.
This can very quickly constitute harassment, and police are capable of tracing TextNow numbers.
So if someone wants you blocked, you should respect their decision.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, there are few guaranteed ways to figure out whether or not someone has blocked your TextNow number.
However, by trying some of the techniques mentioned above, you can be reasonably sure whether you’re blocked or not.
I hope that you’ve found this article to be helpful. If you have any other questions about TextNow, please ask them using the comment form below.
Wishing you the best,
– James McAllister