How to block a number on iPhone

We all know how frustrating it is to receive nuisance calls from telemarketers or the dreaded robot voice of Mr Missold PPI. Or maybe you’re just desperately trying to avoid someone and they just won’t stop ringing your number. Sure, you could put your iPhone on Do Not Disturb, or turn it off completely, but why not just block them altogether?

Thankfully, since iOS 7, Apple has made it incredibly simple to block a phone number on an iPhone – and if you’re running iOS 10 or later, you can even mass-block a whole database of telemarketers. Read on to find out how.

READ NEXT: When will the iPhone 11 come out?

How to block a number on an iPhone running iOS 7 and later

Ever since iOS 7, Apple has allowed users to block numbers straight from the Phone app. This number will be blocked from calling, texting or making FaceTime calls to you. The best thing is that they won’t even know they’ve been blocked, as it will still seem to go through on their end. They’ll still be able to leave you a voicemail message, but you won’t be notified about it.

Here’s exactly how to block a number on an iPhone.

1. Open the Phone app.

2. Tap on either Contacts or Recents.

3. Tap on the little “i” next to the number or contact you want to block.

4. Scroll to the bottom and tap “Block this Caller”.

If that person hasn’t recently called you or isn’t in your contacts, you’ll have to add them as a contact first, before following the same steps above.

Annoyingly, Apple doesn’t give you the option to block calls from No Caller ID, meaning the person will still be able to call you if they hide their ID. It’s possible to block all withheld numbers on Android, but unfortunately not on the iPhone.

How to unblock a number on an iPhone

Think you’d like to speak to that person again? The steps to unblock a number are just as easy to complete.

1. Go to Settings.

2. Scroll down to Phone.

3. Tap on “Call Blocking…”.

4. Tap Edit, and then tap the red icon next to the number you want to unblock to remove from the blocked list.

How to block telemarketers on an iPhone running iOS 10 and later

From iOS 10 onwards, third-party apps can take control of blocking calls, and there’s a whole bunch of apps offering large databases of telemarketer numbers. If you give one of these apps the power to block calls, it can block all of the numbers on its database, meaning the nuisance call never comes through in the first place.

Once you’ve downloaded one of these apps – Truecaller and Mr Number Call Block Lookup both come highly rated – you can enable it by doing the following:

1. Go to Settings.

2. Scroll down and find Phone.

3. Tap on “Call Blocking and Identification”.

4. Toggle the app on.