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How to Block Calls, FaceTime, Texts AND Messages on iPhone
Sick of PPI calls? Hate sales people? Here’s how to BLOCK anybody on your iPhone
Our iPhones and iPads are amazing communication devices. There are no fewer than four primary ways someone can contact you right out of the box: phone, FaceTime, text, and iMessage. Still, many times you may have the experience of someone contacting you who you just want to stop. Maybe it’s an ex that just can’t let go. Maybe it’s those annoying PPI sales calls. Maybe’ it’s your mother in law. Whoever it is, you just want them to go away.
And you can –– iOS 8 has plenty of options for blocking people. All you need to do is find them and switch them on. All of these steps are reversible too, meaning if you decide to take somebody out of your bad books you can always re-activate their communication privileges.
Below you’ll find out how to block individuals from calling, texting, FaceTiming, or iMessaging you–or you can do the nuclear option and block them completely. Here’s how.
How to block phone calls in iOS 8
- Launch the Phone app on the Home screen of your iPhone. It’s green with a white handset logo.
- On the bottom of the screen tap on the Recents button.
- On the recents screen you’ll see a list of phone calls you’ve received and made. Find the contact you want to block (this could be a name or just a phone number) and tap on the blue Info button next to their phone number or name. The blue info button is an “i” in a circle.
- On the info screen scroll to the bottom and tap on Block this Caller.
- A popup confirmation will appear. Tap on the Block Contact button to block them.
You can of course unblock a caller too. To do this simply go back to your Recents list (step #3 above) and tap the info button by the caller you blocked. On the info screen scroll to the bottom and tap Unblock this Caller.
How to block FaceTime calls in iOS 8
Apple’s FaceTime allows you to now receive audio and video calls. If you don’t fancy that stranger instigating lewd video chats, here’s what you need to do to block him.
- Launch the FaceTime app on the Home screen of your iPhone. It’s green with a white video camera logo.
- There will be two tabs–Audio and Video–select the tab that contains the caller you want to block.
- You’ll see a list of audio or video calls you’ve received and made. Find the contact you want to block (this could be a name or just a phone number) and tap on the blue Info button next to their phone number or name. The blue info button is an “i” in a circle.
- On the info screen scroll to the bottom and tap on Block this Caller.
- 5) A popup confirmation will appear. Tap on the Block Contact button to block them.
You can of course unblock a FaceTime caller too. To do this simply go back to your audio or video tab (step #3 above) and tap the info button by the caller you blocked. On the info screen scroll to the bottom and tap Unblock this Caller.
How to block texts and iMessages in iOS 8
Unlike phone and FaceTime calls, iOS 8 uses one app–Messages–to send and receive plain old text messages and iMessages. From this one app you can block both.
- Launch the Messages app on the Home screen of your iPhone. It’s green with a white chat bubble logo.
- On the Messages screen you’ll see a list of texts and iMessages you’ve received and made. Find the contact you want to block (this could be a name or just a phone number) and tap on the message thread.
- In the message thread tap the blue Details button in the top right of the screen.
- On the Details screen tap the blue info button next to their name or number. The blue info button is an “i” in a circle.
- On the info screen scroll to the bottom and tap on Block this Caller.
- A popup confirmation will appear. Tap on the Block Contact button to block them.
You can of course unblock a texter too. To do this simply go back to the texter’s info screen (step #5 above) and tap the info button by the texter you blocked. On the info screen scroll to the bottom and tap Unblock this Caller.
The nuclear option
The above steps allows you to block one number at a time from calling, texting, iMessaging, or FaceTiming you. This is usually enough to block sales calls or spam texts. But if you have a stalker who has multiple phone numbers or IDs they use to call or FaceTime, you may want to try this nuclear option to block them all at once. This option allows you to block a Contact–and all their communication methods–in one fell swoop.
Note that to use this method you MUST already have their contact info in your Contacts app. So if you don’t have a contact card for them, you’ll need to create one. In creating it be sure to put every bit of contact info you have for them: all their phone numbers, Apple IDs, usernames. Everything. Once you’ve done that, follow these steps:
- Open the Settings app on the Home screen of your iPhone.
- Scroll down the list of settings until you see Phone, followed by Messages, followed by FaceTime. You can tap on any of these to block a contact in all of them. Choose one and tap on it.
- On the next screen, scroll down and tap on Blocked.
- On the Blocked screen you’ll see a list of any blocked contacts. To add a new one tap on Add New…
- A list of all your contacts will slide up the screen. Find the contact you want to block and tap on their name. All the contact information (Apple IDs for FaceTime, phone numbers, etc) will be added to the Blocked list.
If you have second thoughts you can unblock a contact by going to the Blocked screen (step #4 above) and swiping left on their name in the lis and tapping the red Unblock button that appears.
Michael Grothaus
14:46, 2 Feb 2015