How to Tell If Someone is Declining Your Calls

When you make a phone call, you will hear ringing on your end to let you know that the phone call is connecting. If the recipient does not answer, you may wonder if they are declining your calls.

Unfortunately, you won’t receive an automated message letting you know that your recipient is declining your calls. So, we’ll have to do some investigation to determine why the contact isn’t answering. This article will teach you the ins and outs of declining calls, so you’ll know if someone is ignoring you.

How to Tell if Someone is Blocking Your Calls

There are a few tell-tale signs that someone is declining your call. The recipient’s phone will respond differently if you’ve been blocked, the phone is off or in airplane mode, or if they’re simply declining your calls.

The Number of Rings

The best way to know if someone is declining your calls is the number of rings you hear before the call goes to voicemail. As mentioned previously, you won’t receive a message or any feedback when a recipient declines your call. But, if you only hear one or two rings, the contact likely declined your call.

The reason for this is that you hear ringing on your end to let you know that the call is connecting. When the other person declines your call, the communication is no longer in a connecting status. So, you’ll only hear the feedback ringing as long as the call is attempting to reach the other person.

However, this behavior also occurs when one of the phones isn’t getting a signal. If you’re unsure of whether the recipient is having network issues or they’re declining your calls, you can send a text message.

Assuming the other person has read receipts enabled, you will see the “Delivered” notification if the user is getting a signal. If you don’t see this notification, the recipient probably didn’t decline your call.

The Number of Times You’ve Called

The number of times you’ve called can indicate that your contact is declining your call. If you’ve called two or three times in a row (albeit slightly annoying), and the recipient still doesn’t answer, odds are they’re busy and ignoring your calls.

If the person you’re trying to reach usually answers your calls but suddenly isn’t, it’s probably because they’re busy. Give it a few hours and try to call them again.

Of course, the recipient may have their phone in Do Not Disturb. Do Not Disturb is a feature of most modern smartphones that sends calls straight to voicemail. But, the DND feature is easily overridden by calling three times back-to-back (in most cases). If you’re having an emergency and need to reach the contact, try calling multiple times back-to-back.

If, after calling three times, the call still doesn’t connect, the contact is probably declining your call.

Blocking Calls

Blocking calls is different than declining calls because your phone call never gets through to the other person. This feature is built into the software of most phone models. If a user goes into their contacts and selects the information option (small ‘i’ with a circle around it) next to your name, they can set your contact as “Blocked.”

If you’re looking to block a contact from calling your phone number, check out How to Block Phone Numbers & Calls.

From that point on, the recipient will no longer be alerted to incoming phone calls. This will affect text messages as well. Any form of communication that comes to that phone number will be stopped.

Knowing if Your Phone Calls are Blocked

Having your phone number blocked is similar to their number being disconnected from the network. You will receive an error stating, “We’re sorry, but the party you’ve reached is not in service” or something of that nature.

If your number has been blocked, you will not be notified. The best way to test this is to call from another phone number or a calling application such as TextNow.

If the contact answers their phone, this means your contact has been blocked. If they do not answer the phone and it continues to go to voicemail, they are probably having an issue with their cell phone.

The Phone Call is Going Straight to Voicemail

Concerns may arise when you attempt to make a phone call and it goes straight to voicemail. If this happens, it’s usually for one of three reasons:

1. The phone is not on – either the battery died, or the person has turned their phone off
2. The phone is in airplane mode – Airplane mode is a function the phone’s owner will use to disconnect it from the service
3. The phone is in Do Not Disturb – Do Not Disturb can be set for all contacts or just a few. To allow communications during emergencies, Do Not Disturb features usually allow a contact to get through after three back-to-back phone calls.

If this person would typically take your call, any of these is a potential sign that they are declining to take your call.

How to Get Through

If you both have iPhones, try texting them. If the text is marked as “Delivered,” that means their phone is not off or in airplane mode. If the text is not delivered, it’s likely that their phone is just off or not accessing the network.

If attempts to contact a recipient are unsuccessful, you can attempt to contact that person through Social Media such as; WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or even LinkedIn.

As far as avoiding messages go, WhatsApp and Facebook messenger will show whether a message has been delivered or read.

Call From a Spoofed “Friendly” Number

For those who are unable to reach a specific contact, another option is called “Spoofing.” Using free applications and software that is downloaded from the internet, you can create an account and call the number in question.

Unlike using TextNow or another calling application, spoofing allows you to mimic another phone number on the caller ID. This could be your contact’s friend or even a relative.

Spoofing is a technology that the FCC is phasing out, so it may not work much longer. With new applications provided by cell phone companies, your contact may be alerted that something is not right with the phone number.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will someone know if I declined their call?

Although they won’t receive any flashing red lights saying, “this caller is ignoring you!” Most users can deduce, based on the activity of your phone, that they’re being ignored.

What if the call doesn’t go to voicemail?

If their phone only rings once and then hangs up without going to voicemail, they’re likely not ignoring your phone calls. This behavior can usually be attributed to a network error. Try rebooting your phone or checking for network issues.

How can I decline a call without being noticed?

Your best bet, let it ring and go to voicemail. Fortunately, most smartphones will silence the call without declining it if you tap the volume buttons on the side.

What does the ‘Send Message’ option do?

If you’re declining someone’s call, both Android and iPhone models have a ‘Send Message’ option. To avoid confrontation later, tap on this (it will silence the call) and send the caller a message that you’re busy.

Will someone know if I mute the ringer when they’re calling?

No. Your phone will continue ringing on their end, but you won’t hear it. If you’re looking to avoid someone, this is the best way to avoid their incoming calls undetected. If the caller calls back multiple times and you’re still silencing the ringer, they may begin to suspect that you’re ignoring them.

Why can’t I decline a call on my iPhone?

This is a question that has plagued iOS users for years. You have the option to decline a call when your phone is unlocked, but if the call comes through while your phone is locked, you have no choice on the screen but to slide and answer. Although no one really knows why Apple decided to do this, you can still decline a call on an iPhone. Tap the Sleep/Wake button once to silence the call. Tap it twice to reject the call.

Waiting it Out

One of the best things you can do if you suspect that someone is declining your calls is to wait. The recipient may be busy, or perhaps they’re having trouble with their phone. Some of the methods listed above (although successful) may prove to get you blocked if you aren’t already.

If you’ve tried several times in one day to contact someone with no success, it may be best to wait a few days if it isn’t urgent to communicate with them. If it is urgent, it may be best to contact a friend, family member, or close colleague of that person.