Can you bar text messages

Many mobile carriers provide services and additional settings to help their customers block messages from specific numbers, like those from telemarketers. We recommend checking these ones out if you decide to go with that option, but be aware of the potential privacy issues inherent with sharing your contacts. Should I Answer? It includes an active forum that reviews and rates various phone numbers, as well as sharing other information, which makes it easy to tell if a phone number is legitimate, a bot, telemarketer, or a scam.

Yes, this text-blocking software accesses your contacts. However, the developer promises your contacts remain private without shares or uploads, and contacts are only accessed to check against incoming phone calls. This call-blocking app works off a massive database with millions of phone numbers to identify and flag telemarketers, robocalls, fraudsters, and debt collectors. This app lets you make a list to block numbers or reverse-search numbers from your phone calls log.

The company guarantees they will never sell your contacts and can only access them to form white lists and match information. Still take a look at the privacy policy to be on the safe side. Hiya was developed by the same folks behind Mr. Number, another widely used app. Android iPhone. Truecaller, the next in line from the well-regarded Truemessenger app, works in much the same way as its predecessor by alerting you to a spam call or message.

Even though your phone book will be accessed so Tuecaller can block spam, the company reassured us that user privacy will not be compromised. It indicates a way to see more nav menu items inside the site menu by triggering the side menu to open and close. Dave Johnson. You can block unwanted text messages on an Android phone by blocking the number with just a few taps.

You can block numbers from within your text messaging app, but the exact process depends on which app you use. If you can't find the option to block, you can install the Google Messages app and use that app instead. Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning.

He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Insider Inc. Additional comments. Email optional. Receive a selection of our best stories daily based on your reading preferences. Select the arrow to the right of the contact. Select info denoted by the round "i" icon. Select Info the last button in a row of four that appears.

Scroll down and tap Block this Caller. Select Block Contact to confirm. If the point of contact is a phone call, open the list of calls in the Phone or FaceTime app, tap the i icon next to the number you want blocked, and select Block this Caller.

If you don't have an existing message or recent call from the person you want to block, but they're a contact in your phone, you can set up the call and text blocking from Settings.

Open Settings. Tap Add New. Pick the contact you want to block. If you use Google's Messages app on your phone or tablet, follow these directions to block texts:. Tap and hold the conversation. Select the circle with the line through it at the top right of the app. Optionally, report the number as spam, and then tap OK. Another way to block texts in the Google Messages app is by opening the conversation. Press and hold the conversation with the number you want blocked.

Select Block. Tap Block once again to confirm. There are lots of versions of the Android operating system still in circulation, so if you're using one that doesn't reflect the instructions above, those screenshots won't look like what you see on your phone or tablet. Try one of these methods for blocking texts on Android if you haven't had luck yet:.

Open the conversation, tap the three dots at the top right, select Block number , and then tap OK. Type the number you want to block, or choose one from Inbox or Contacts , and then select the green plus sign to add the number to your block list. Look for a Settings or menu-looking button and then browse the options for anything related to SMS, text, calls, messages, or other words that might be used to describe how someone could contact you.

There should be a block option there. There are so many messaging apps out there for iPhone and Android that listing SMS blocking directions for all of them is unrealistic. Here's how to block text messages in a few of the more popular ones:.

If you refer to emails as texts, or emailing is your primary form of texting and you want to block messages there, too, you can.

Some carriers have message blocking tools you can use to block spam text messages or block specific numbers.

This might be a preferred way for you to block messages if you're a parent overseeing several phones and you don't want your kids to easily undo your restrictions.