You live a full life. The last thing you need are sales calls, or even worse, calls from scammers. But they can happen from time to time.
That's why the Block feature on your phone is a big help. It filters out unwanted calls without you having to put your life on hold to deal with them over and over again.
What happens, however, if you accidentally put an unknown phone number on your block list?
Well, there is an easy way to find out and an easy way to fix it.
View blocked numbers from Phone/Contacts app
There are several ways to check your blocked numbers list on an Android phone. Each phone user interface may have a slightly different version of these instructions. But generally, one of the easiest ways to view your blocked list is to follow the instructions below:
Step 1 - Open the Phone/Contacts app
First, go to your phone's home screen and open your Phone app. It's usually a phone receiver icon, unless you've customized it to something else.
Some Android phones don't have a separate Phone app. Tapping this icon can automatically bring up the contact list with a dial pad in the corner. Good for those purposes.
Step 2 – Go to phone app settings
The next step is to go to your phone settings. This also works if you are on your contact list.
Simply tap on the three stacked lines in the upper right corner of the screen. The Settings icon may also appear as three vertical dots.
When you tap on the three lines or dots, you will see another menu appear. This is your phone's Settings menu. Scroll down until you come to the Blocked Numbers option and select it.
Some Android phones call this same feature call blocking or something similar. Tap the list that contains the word Block or some variation of it.
Step 3 – View your list of blocked numbers
These are the blocked numbers on your phone.
As you can see, you can also add numbers to the list manually by tapping on the Add option. You will not receive calls or texts from any number on this list. But if you see a number that was added accidentally, there's a simple fix.
Tap the "X" to the right of the phone number to remove them from the blocked numbers list, or long press the number, then select Remove at the bottom. Your phone may ask you to confirm first to remove the block. Confirm the deletion and you will start receiving calls and texts from this number again.
View blocked numbers from text app
Another way to view your blocked numbers is through your text app.
Tap the Settings menu in the top right corner of the screen. It is usually represented by three lines or three vertical dots.
When you open the new Settings menu, you'll see a list of options.
If your phone has spam protection, you might see an option to view spam and blocked messages. Click on it to see potential spam messages and the phone numbers associated with them.
You can dig deeper into your blocked numbers from this list by tapping the Settings icon again and selecting Blocked Contacts.
If you don't have the spam protection feature, your phone may just have the Blocked Contacts option. Tapping it takes you back to the same page you see when viewing through your Phone app.
With great power...
A final word on putting numbers on your block list:
This contact cannot call or text you, but it works both ways.
You also cannot call or text them.
Before deciding to ban someone from this list of blocked numbers, think carefully. Are you sure the number belongs to this list?
Banning someone can be an easy solution at the moment. But you might miss potentially important calls in the future.
Have you ever had to block a number on Android? Did you use the methods described above? Let us know in the comment section below.
