Your WhatsApp messages are neither delivered nor read? Then your contact may have blocked you. TECHBOOK explains to you which signs you can use to recognize this.
Everyone knows the blocking function on WhatsApp – and has probably used it before. Whether it’s with an ex-partner, a pushy bar flirt or a semi-acquaintance who needs to be communicated. Blocking others is easy, but how do you know if you’ve been blocked on WhatsApp? At first glance, this is nowhere to be seen, and you are not notified either. But there are some hints that TECHBOOK will present to you.
Also interesting: The latest TECHBOOK articles on WhatsApp
Blocked on WhatsApp? Those are the clues
Sometimes there are just contacts and groups that only annoy WhatsApp. They may be sending meaningless or just too many messages, or getting bogged down in endless discussions. If you have such contacts but don’t want to delete them right away, you can block them on WhatsApp. This works in two ways with just a few clicks. Open the corresponding chat on WhatsApp and then click on the three dots in the upper right corner. Under “More” you will now find the selection “Block”. The other path is through the chat window and contact. At the bottom there is the option to block the contact in red. From now on, the blocked person can no longer reach you via WhatsApp and will no longer receive any of your status messages. But how do you find out if someone has blocked you on WhatsApp? The following indicators could provide a clue:
1. Note: Profile picture disappeared
WhatsApp itself doesn’t offer a setting that shows if someone has blocked or deleted you. The developers justify this step with the privacy of the users. So you have to start looking for clues: Is the profile picture of the contact still visible? If so, it could also be an old one. The best thing to do is look at the user’s profile again: Can you retrieve the profile information? Or does the image suddenly disappear and all you see is a gray placeholder? If so, this could show: You have been blocked! However, there is also the setting that only saved contacts can see the profile picture of the respective person. If this function is activated and you are not a saved contact, you generally have no access to the profile picture, whether blocked or not.
2. Hint: Timestamp
Another indicator is the so-called time stamp – i.e. the small display in the chat under the user’s name that indicates when the user was last online. If a contact blocks you, you will no longer be able to see them. But be careful: The time stamp is not displayed for all users, as you can also deactivate this function. Just because you can’t see the timestamp of some users doesn’t mean you’ve been blocked.
3. Note: The second tick is missing
If only a tick appears on sent messages, then you should also be skeptical. But what do the ticks actually indicate? A tick means that you sent the message successfully and it got somewhere on WhatsApp’s servers. But only when the second tick appears does it mean that the message actually arrived at the recipient. If this is not the case, there is either a technical problem with WhatsApp or the recipient currently has no internet connection – or he does not want to receive any messages from you and has blocked you.
Incidentally, if the ticks are colored blue, this means that the recipient has also read the message. In this article, we explain how to turn off this feature.
4. Note: call does not come through
With WhatsApp you can also make calls over the Internet – both by voice call and video call. However, such connections can only be made with contacts that you have not blocked on WhatsApp. So if you suspect that’s exactly what happened, just call them on WhatsApp. If you can’t get through at all, that’s a sign that someone probably doesn’t like you.
5. Hint: Create WhatsApp group
Last but not least, there is another tip that will show you, even more precisely than all the previous ones, whether one of your contacts has blocked you on WhatsApp. To do this, you need to create a new group, to which you also add the suspected blocker. This is how it works:
Open WhatsApp and go to the Messenger menu via the three dots. Here you will find the option “New group” in the first position. As soon as you click on them, you will be taken to their contact list, from which you can select members for the group. Also, specifically add the person you think blocked you. If your assumption is correct, the person will not appear in the list of group members. The list can be found in the group menu under “Group info”.
Tip: If your assumption is not correct and the contact has not blocked you on WhatsApp, you should be able to respond to possible inquiries and give a reason for creating the group.
Also block SMS and calls – is that possible?
If you have been blocked on WhatsApp, you will not be able to text or call this person – but only in the app itself. You can still send messages and make calls using normal mobile networks. However, you should ask yourself why the person blocked you and whether you shouldn’t better respect this boundary.
Also interesting: With these WhatsApp messages you make yourself liable to prosecution!
If you want to make sure that a contact can really no longer contact him or her, you should not only block this person as a WhatsApp contact, but also as a regular cell phone contact. On both Android and iOS, you can block a caller in just four steps:
iOS
- Open the Apple phone app.
- Go to Contacts.
- Click on the contact you want to block.
- Scroll all the way down and go to “Block Caller”.
Android
- Open the Phone app.
- Click on a contact you want to block.
- Go to the three-dot menu.
- Tap Block.