Do Blocked Messages Get Delivered when Unblocked? Info and Tips

The Internet is a public place where you can share your pictures, thoughts, likes and dislikes, and everything you decide. Still, there are many ways to protect your privacy, one of them being the option to block other people. When you block someone, they won’t be able to reach you by messages or watch anything related to your account or number. Yet, you can unblock them anytime you want.

There are thousands of reasons why people get blocked. If you often block people -or get blocked- on many social media platforms, you may want to keep reading this post and find out whether blocked messages get delivered when unblocked and more.

Do blocked messages get delivered when unblocked?

Even though this sounds like a huge and ambiguous question, the answer will be similar whether you are talking about one platform or the other. Still, next, you will find a quick recap of the explanation regarding each of the main social media:

iMessage/SMS

These are essential text apps for iOS and Android, respectively, and they work very similarly, so any of these will deliver texts sent when the user is still blocked. The blocker won’t get any notifications if they try to contact them.

However, if you get unblocked and want to send the texts again, you are free to do it, as long as you haven’t deleted the conversation.

Remember, the message will be delivered if the blocked person tries to reach you from another number. Later, we will tell you how to filter your texts if this is your recurrent problem.

Instagram

Instagram won’t show you any direct messages from a blocked account; even if you unblocked them, the only way to receive them is if they resend them.

You also have to remember that the only way they can try to contact you through Instagram is if they have already had a conversation with you. So it wasn’t deleted since your account won’t be available for them anymore if they try to look for your username, even if they create another account that is related to the previous one.

Still, if you only have them restricted, their messages will show up in your DMs in the Request section, and they won’t know if or when you see them.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp doesn’t break the pattern. Any message sent while blocked won’t be delivered, even if the user is already unblocked.

If one of your contacts has you blocked, you can still send them messages, and they will remain in the conversation with only one check, but the other person won’t be notified about this. Likewise, the old texts sent before being blocked won’t be deleted unless one of the users decides to.

Messenger

This is Facebook’s instant message service. However, people who are blocked on Messenger aren’t necessarily blocked on Facebook as vice-versa. You will never see any message sent from a blocked account since any of the accounts won’t be able to talk to each other because they will see a notification when you open the conversation stating, ‘You can’t reply to this conversation’.

Snapchat

Even though the account of the person who blocked you will remain in your inbox, and when you send them snaps and texts, they will show as delivered, the person won’t receive any of this. This is one of Snapchat’s ways to protect the privacy of the blocker, making the other person think that they are being ignored when the blocker won’t have any idea that they are being sent messages and snaps.

Can you recover messages that came from a blocked number?

If you are an Android user, the short answer is yes, but, sadly, this isn’t possible on iPhone. This is easier than it may sound. You have to follow these steps:

  • Open the Messages app.
  • Tap on the three-dot icon located on the search bar.
  • Click on the option that says Spam and blocked.
  • This will take you to a new folder that contains all the texts that fit into this category.
  • You can now open the conversation with one of the blocked numbers you want to see and look at their texts. 
  • Suppose there is one number that, by chance, you don’t consider spam or is blocked by accident. In that case, you can unblock them by opening the conversation, clicking on the three-dot icon in the top right corner, and clicking on Not spam. Then notify why it isn’t spamming, and the following message from this number will be delivered in the usual category.

What happens when you unblock someone?

Considering that the whole purpose of blocking someone is that they no longer have contact with you, it wouldn’t make much sense that someone was notified when they are unblocked unless they are reached by the person who blocked them first or if they try to contact them and their message is effectively delivered.

The same thing happens when people get blocked, they won’t receive a notification about it, but they will notice if they try to contact the person who blocked them.

Can you tell if someone blocked you?

The short answer is yes. You can tell if someone blocked you as long as you reach them.

Suppose they blocked your number, and you try to send them a text. In that case, you will receive a message notifying you that your text won’t be delivered to the person because they blocked you, this will happen if you use Android SMS, but if you use iMessage, it will never say ‘delivered’ needless to say ‘read’.

On the other hand, if you want to know if someone blocked you on another platform, such as Instagram, you will have to look for their username. You are indeed blocked if it doesn’t show up on your account.

Also, Instagram won’t show any interaction that the blocked account had with you in the future, such as tags, comments, or likes, if they do so in joint accounts.

As for WhatsApp, you won’t be able to see their status and profile picture, and your messages won’t be delivered. It will be similar on Telegram.

The most obvious to let people know they are blocked is Twitter. The only thing you have to do is go to the profile of the account you are suspicious has you on their blocked list, and you will see a big message saying ‘You’re blocked’ of course, you can no longer see this person’s interactions.

When you want to see if someone blocked you on Facebook, you have to go to your profile, where you will notice that their posts, status, and so on aren’t available anymore, as you have been removed from their friend list.

Lastly, as we mentioned earlier, if someone blocked you on Messenger, you won’t be able to send them a text or watch their stories.

How to filter messages from unknown numbers on iPhone

If you constantly receive texts from numbers that you don’t have registered and you are not happy about it, you should try to filter them this way:

  • Go to the Settings app.
  • Scroll until you find the Messages section and open it.
  • Tap on the toggle next to the option that says Filter Unknown Senders to turn it on.
  • When you go to the iMessage app, you will notice that there are two sections, one for the texts coming from your contacts and the other for unknown senders. When you open one of these texts, the sender won’t know that you saw it as it would typically on the regular section.

Sadly, this function isn’t available on Android yet. Hopefully, they will introduce it soon.

The final lines on do blocked messages get delivered when unblocked

To conclude, most apps work the same when it comes to the block feature, and we hope we explain it as simply as possible and all your concerns about the question – do blocked messages get delivered when unblocked – are finally answered.

Blocking is a handy tool that protects our privacy and safety on the Internet. However, even though it is reversible, we recommend you not do it for small things unless you think it is necessary.

Your accounts are supposed to be a safe place where you can decide what to share and who you do it with, so it is nice to know that you have this option and what happens when you do it.

Also, try to avoid other people’s blocked lists since, as we mentioned earlier, you won’t be able to reach them no matter how hard you try, especially if they block you on all of their media.

Always use your profiles with responsibility.

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