Telemarketers, bill collectors or a crazy ex harassing you: what do these have in common? We are not keen on receiving calls from any of them, anytime. If you’re an Android or iOS user there are a few simple ways to block unwanted calls on your device…
Living in the age of smartphones means that any person in the world can reach you through your mobile whenever and wherever you are, an idea that isn’t too thrilling for anyone who has annoying relatives or friends who have the habit of calling at the worst times just to gossip or ask for a favor. You can keep dodging unwanted calls by silencing the ringtone, but why do that when there’s a more elegant method to block unwanted calls if you’re an iOS or Android user?
Before iOS 7, anyone using an iPhone had either to pay their carrier extra fees to block selected numbers from reaching them, or to use a jailbreak tweak, but iOS 7 finally introduced some neat call blocking features that include SMS and FaceTime blocking.
- If the number you want to block is in your contact list you just have to go to Settings->Phone->Blocked->Add New, and then select the contact from the list. When a blocked contact tries to reach you their call will go straight to voicemail without making a sound, and if they facetime you it won’t work either.
- If the number you wish to block recently called you but is not in your contact list, touch the blue (i)symbol that appears near the number, and scroll down to the ‘Block this Caller’ option and select it.
- If you want to block a number that hasn’t called you and also isn’t in your contacts you must save it in your phone book first.
The methods above are for blocking calls, if you want to block incoming SMS messages from someone you must open the Messages app, open the message thread for that person and then touch the blue ‘Contact’ button in the top right. The you have to tap on the blue (i) and scroll to “Block this Caller’.
On Android there isn’t an universal method to block calls that works all devices as this depends on the phone’s manufacturer. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has built-in call blocking features that are easy to find: if you touch and hold your finger on a contact from your phone book or on a number that recently called you a small menu will pop up and one of the options that you can select is “Add to reject list”. If you use voicemail the blocked numbers will go straight to voicemail and if you don’t calls are automatically rejected without the phone ringing. The numbers you add to the reject list can be edited from Call Settings->Call Rejection->Auto Reject List.
If you have an Android phone and you can’t find or the manufacturer didn’t provide call blocking settings you can use one of the many Call Blocking apps that you can find in the Play Market. The most popular are Call Control, Mr Number and Call Blocker, and they are all good at screening calls and messages. Mr Number also has a ‘Spam Database’, where you can check other user’s comments about numbers so you can identify spam or bill collectors easily.
