How to block unknown calls on iphone

Block phone numbers, contacts, and emails on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

You can block phone numbers, contacts, and emails on your device. You can also filter iMessages from unknown senders and report iMessages that look like spam or junk.

Block a phone number, contact, or email

There are a few ways that you can block phone numbers, contacts, and emails.

Phone

From the Phone app, tap Recents, then tap the Info button next to the phone number or contact that you want to block. Scroll down, then tap Block this Caller.

FaceTime

From the FaceTime app, tap the Info button next to the phone number, contact, or email address that you want to block. Scroll down, then tap Block this Caller.

Messages

From the Messages app, open the conversation, tap the contact at the top of the conversation. Tap the info button, scroll down, then tap Block this Caller.

From the Mail app, open the email that has the contact that you want to block, then tap the contact at the top. Tap Block this Contact.

When you block a phone number or contact, they can still leave a voicemail, but you won’t get a notification. Messages that are sent or received won’t be delivered. Also, the contact won’t get a notification that the call or message was blocked. When you block an email address from Mail, it goes to the trash folder. Email blocking works across all your Apple devices.

Manage your blocked phone numbers, contacts, and emails

To see the phone numbers, contacts, and email addresses that you’ve blocked from Phone, FaceTime, Messages, or Mail:

Phone

Go to Settings > Phone and tap Blocked Contacts to see the list.

FaceTime

Go to Settings > FaceTime. Under Calls, tap Blocked Contacts.

Messages

Go to Settings > Messages. Under SMS/MMS, tap Blocked Contacts.

Go to Settings > Mail. Under Threading, tap Blocked.

Filter messages from unknown senders

You can filter messages from people who aren’t saved in your Contacts.

To filter messages, go to Settings > Messages, scroll down and turn on Filter Unknown Senders.

In Messages, tap Filters, then tap Unknown Senders. You won’t get notifications for these messages.

Report spam or junk in the Messages app

You can report iMessages that look like spam or junk from the Messages app. If you get an iMessage from someone who’s not saved in your Contacts, you’ll see a Report Junk link under the message.

Tap Report Junk, then tap Delete and Report Junk. Messages will forward the sender’s information and the message to Apple, as well as delete the message from your device. You can’t undo deleting a message.

Reporting junk doesn’t block the sender from being able to send another message. If you don’t want to receive these messages, you need to block the contact.

To report SMS and MMS messages, contact your carrier.

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Detect and block spam phone calls

You can use Silence Unknown Callers or a third-party app to block spam calls on your iPhone.

Turn on Silence Unknown Callers

With iOS 13 and later, you can turn on Silence Unknown Callers to avoid getting calls from people you don’t know. This blocks phone numbers that you’ve never been in contact with and don’t have saved in your contacts list. If you’ve previously texted with someone using their phone number or if a person has shared their phone number with you in an email, a phone call from that number will go through.

To turn on Silence Unknown Callers, go to Settings > Phone, then scroll down, tap Silence Unknown Callers, and turn on the feature. Calls from unknown numbers are silenced and sent to your voicemail, and appear in your recent calls list.

Incoming calls will come through from people that are saved in your contacts list, recent calls list, and from Siri Suggestions to let you know who’s calling based on phone numbers included in your emails or text messages.

If an emergency call is placed, Silence Unknown Callers will be temporarily disabled for the next 24 hours to allow for your iPhone to be reached.

Before you turn on Silence Unknown Callers, make sure you have important contacts saved or you could miss a phone call that you don’t want to miss. The call will still go to voicemail and appear in your recent calls list, but you won’t get a notification while the call is ringing.

Set up an app to filter and detect spam calls

1. Go to the App Store and download an app that detects and blocks spam phone calls. You can download and install multiple apps with this feature from different app developers.
2. Go to Settings > Phone.
3. Tap Call Blocking & Identification.
4. Under Allow These Apps To Block Calls And Provide Caller ID, turn the app on or off. You can also reorder the apps based on priority. Just tap Edit and then drag the apps in the order you want them.

Phone numbers that appear under Blocked Contacts are numbers that you manually block.

When you receive a call, your device checks the caller’s number and compares it to the list of phone numbers in your third-party spam apps. If there’s a match, iOS displays the identifying label chosen by the app, for example Spam or Telemarketing. If the app determines that a phone number is spam, it may choose to block the phone call automatically. Incoming calls are never sent to third-party developers.

If you determine that a number is from a spam caller, you can block the number manually on your device. Phone numbers that you manually block appear under Blocked Contacts.

If you no longer want to use the app, you can remove it.

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How to Block Unknown Calls on the iPhone

Receiving repeated calls from unknown callers is just plain irritating. The feature to block someone or block a number on your iPhone has been around for a while, but not until iOS 13 did we got a workaround to block private numbers where there is no caller ID. You might think calling from a hidden number would be illegal! The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, actually mandates that phone companies make it freely available to block caller ID and keep your number private. Of course, the FCC also mandates that telemarketers are not allowed to hide their numbers. Still, without a way to trace a private call back to a particular company or person, this law is decidedly toothless. If the government isn’t going to stop telemarketers, scammers, and other nuisance callers from hiding their numbers, then it is up to us to put an end to unwanted calls. Fortunately, you can easily block a number on your iPhone, block unknown callers, block no caller ID, and even stop calls from hidden numbers as well. Let’s get started learning how to block nuisance calls on our iPhones.

What’s in This Article:

How to Block a Number on Your iPhone

To begin our journey of stopping nuisance calls, let’s learn how to block a number. Remember, you can add your own phone number to the National Do Not Call registry. Once your number has been listed for 31 days, if you receive an unwanted call, you can report it. The offending company will receive a penalty. Not every nuisance caller is a telemarketer, though. Sometimes you get calls over and over again from the same number, so you might need to block a phone number just to keep yourself sane. Here’s how to block someone on your iPhone:

1. Open the Phone app.
2. Tap Recents at the bottom of the screen.
3. Find the number you want to block and tap the “i”.

Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and tap Block This Caller.

How to Silence Unknown Callers and Those with No Caller ID

This feature, introduced with iOS 13, will block unknown calls by sending all calls from unknown numbers straight to voicemail. If you don’t have iOS 13 then skip down to the next section for an alternative method. With this feature you could miss important calls from numbers that you haven’t listed in your Contacts, like your doctor or pharmacy. However, it’s very useful for weeding out robo-calls, scammers, spoofers, and telemarketers. This method also silences phone calls made using this common trick to hide your Caller ID, even those made by people in your Contact’s list. Here’s how to enable Silence Unknown Callers to block unknown calls on your iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Select Phone.
3. Toggle Silence Unknown Callers to on.

You’ve done it! Enjoy the sweet, sweet silence. But remember that when your bank or doctor offers to call you back, you’ll have to ask them what number they’ll be calling from and make sure to add it to your contacts, or else you’ll likely miss the call. There is a caveat to this approach: it doesn’t silence calls from numbers which Siri identifies as suggested contacts. If a number repeatedly calls you, for example a political operative trying to talk up their candidate, then Siri may identify them as a possible friend, and then their calls will start getting through again.

How to Block All Unknown Numbers Using Do Not Disturb

If have an older version of the iOS, you can still block unknown callers. Simply set Do Not Disturb to a 24-hour schedule and allow calls only from your contacts. Keep in mind that if you receive an important call from someone who isn’t in your contacts, you’ll miss it. You can, however, check for voicemails even from blocked calls. There’s also an option to allow a second call from the same person within three minutes to go through, so you can be reached in an emergency. Like the Silence Unknown Callers method, the Do Not Disturb method will block all calls labeled «No Caller ID,» even if the call is being made by someone on contact’s list. Here’s how to block calls from all unknown numbers:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Do Not Disturb.
3. Select Allow Calls From.

Select All Contacts.

Return to previous menu and toggle on Scheduled.

Set schedule to a 24-hour period.

Now, your Do Not Disturb function will automatically stay on and only calls from your contacts will make a sound.

How to Unblock a Number on Your iPhone

If you’ve gotten overzealous with your call blocking, don’t worry, it happens. Here’s how to unblock a number that you blocked.

1. Open the Settingsapp.
2. Tap Phone.

Tap Blocked Numbers, and you’ll see a list of all the numbers you’ve blocked.

Tap Edit in the top right corner.

Tap the red circled minus sign to remove a number from the list.

Tap Done to finish.

Use a Blocking App to Stop Nuisance & Anonymous Calls

If your phone company can’t offer you a way to stop nuisance calls, there are several third-party apps that can help. Here are two of my top picks.

RoboKiller is an app is designed to identify robocalls and spam, as well as unmasking unknown numbers with «Super Caller ID.» Winning the FTC’s anti-robocall competition gives RoboKiller a lot of credibility as one of the best nuisance blockers out there. RoboKiller’s developers offer a one-week free trial, followed by a monthly charge. If you’re enthusiastic about RoboKiller and find it’s the solution you’ve been looking for, you can purchase a one-year membership for $29.99.

How to Enable a Call Detector App on Your iPhone

If you decide to install a third-party app to filter out unwanted calls, you’ll need to change a few settings to get started.

1. Open the Settingsapp.
2. Scroll down to Phone and tap on it.
3. Tap on Call Blocking & Identification. Note that this option only appears once a call blocking app is downloaded and installed from the App Store, as above.

Under Allow These Apps To Block Calls And Provide Caller ID, turn your call-blocking app on. ​​

I hope this article has helped to solve your problem with nuisance calls to your iPhone. While these methods won’t block Emergency Alerts on the iPhone, taking these steps will definitely reduce the daily interruptions. Please let me know what worked best for you, and if you have any favorite spam-blocking apps in the comments.

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Author Details

Author Details

Cullen Thomas

Cullen Thomas is a Writer and Producer at iPhone Life, creating tips and guides to help users unlock the full potential of their iOS and iPhone. In addition to writing countless tip-of-the-day articles and many detailed guides, Cullen has spent nine years as an instructor in media and communications at Maharishi University, lecturing on technical and artistic subjects ranging from camera and audio hardware to story-plotting to how to manage a film crew. Cullen answers questions daily about iPhones and iOS as part of the Ask an Editor insider service, and designs curriculum for iPhone Life’s online classes. As a frequent contributor to iPhone Life magazine and occasional guest on the iPhone Life podcast, Cullen likes to talk about security and privacy news, tech, gadgets, and apps, even if nobody asked.

Cullen holds a master’s degree in Cinematic Arts from the David Lynch School of Cinematic Arts. Cullen also holds two Bachelor’s degrees from Maharishi University, one in literature with an emphasis in writing and the other in Communications and Media. Cullen’s short fiction has been featured in anthologies from Amphibian Press and TANSTAAFL, and Cullen co-owns a game design company, Thoughtspike games, which builds thought-provoking puzzle games. Cullen is a sci-fi author, a coffee connoisseur, and an iPhone expert.

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