Block a number on iPhone for blissful silence

Spam calls and text messages seem absolutely relentless these days — you’ll want to know how to block a number on your iPhone to keep your sanity. Luckily, it’s easy. There are a variety of ways you can stop unwanted calls. You can block an incoming phone call or text message. And you can send unknown callers directly to Live Voicemail.

If you’re blocking a person in your contacts list, it doesn’t matter which app you block them from — Messages, Phone, Contacts, Mail, Settings — they will be blocked everywhere.

Here’s how to block calls from unknown numbers on iPhone and keep spammers at bay.

How to block a number on iPhone

If you remember the good old days before cellphones became ubiquitous, you know the serenity that comes from being unreachable. There were no late-night text messages from your boss, no spam emails phishing for your credit card number.

Yes, you might receive a few unwanted phone calls, but they arrived only in your home or office — not when you were playing golf, lounging by the pool or sitting down to dinner in a fancy restaurant.

The iPhone changed all that. And while you can set up Focus modes to gain some peace and quiet in certain settings, nothing beats blocking a spammer for good. Follow the steps below to keep unwanted calls, texts and emails at bay.

Table of contents: How to block contacts from calling, texting and emailing

Block a number on iPhone

If you get a spam text or you want to block someone, you can do it directly from Messages. Tap on the icon at the top (if it’s a group chat, you can tap on a specific person), then scroll down and tap Block Contact. You will no longer receive incoming texts or phone calls from the person.

It’s easy to do from the new Phone app in iOS 26, too. Tap the Calls tab on the bottom. Tap on a recent call, then at the bottom of the screen, tap Block Contact. The process is similar from inside the FaceTime app as well.

You can block unwanted contacts from inside Apple’s Mail app too. Tap on an email, then tap the Reply button in the toolbar at the bottom. For some reason, this Reply button brings up a full menu of options, whereas the other Reply button at the bottom of a message instantly creates a reply.

Scroll down the list and tap Block Sender at the bottom. Emails from blocked contacts are automatically moved to the trash. If you want emails from blocked contacts to stay in your inbox (for some reason), you can change this behavior. Go to Settings > Mail > Blocked Sender Options and check Leave in Inbox.

Add someone to your block list in Settings

You might want to preemptively block someone before they have the chance to text, call or email. Maybe you switched from Android to iPhone and want to add your blocked contacts — or maybe you made a mortal enemy today.

No matter the situation, you can block them. For phone numbers and text messages, go to Settings > Apps > Phone > Blocked Contacts and tap Add Blocked Contact. Search for a contact name or type in a phone number, then tap Block Contact.

To block an email address, go to Settings > Apps > Mail > Blocked and tap Add Blocked Contact, following the same procedure. Search for a contact name or type in an email address, then tap Block Contact. 

Note: If you add someone from your contacts list with both a phone number and email address, they will automatically be added to both block lists.

Unblock a contact or manage your blocked contacts

If you make a mistake and accidentally block somebody you shouldn’t have — or they make a remarkable turnaround and you want to hear from them again — it’s easy to unblock a contact. You won’t be able to see the messages or emails you stopped yourself from seeing, but you will receive them going forward.

To unblock a person, go to either Settings > Apps > Phone > Blocked Contacts or Settings > Apps > Mail > Blocked. Then tap Edit in the top right. Tap − and then tap Delete on the contact you want to unblock.

Silence incoming phone calls on iPhone

Obviously, you can’t block every shady number on your iPhone in advance. There are simply too many spammers in the world. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to shield yourself from all unknown calls.

By utilizing a combination of two great iOS features, you can radically reduce the number of junk calls you get. Those two features are called Call Screening and Live Voicemail, and they work well together. (According to Apple, “Live Voicemail is available only in English in the United States and Canada, excluding Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”)

Live Voicemail falls somewhere in the gray area between accepting and declining a phone call. Tap this button, and your iPhone stops ringing and the call goes directly to voicemail. However, it creates a live transcription of the voicemail even as the person on the other line is talking. So if the call turns out to be important, you can pick it up and answer at any time.

Live Voicemail and Silence Unknown Callers: A killer combination to block a number on iPhone

If you use Live Voicemail in conjunction with Call Screening, you can reduce the ringing without the fear of missing out on that one actually important call you might get.

Live Voicemail is a smart feature. Any number you’ve called recently will automatically be let through. That means the pharmacy you just dialed to fill a prescription, or the pizza place you ordered delivery from, can get through if they need to call back with a follow-up question.

Go to Settings > Apps > Phone and scroll down to enable Live Voicemail and set “Screen Unknown Callers” to Ask Reason for Calling.

More iPhone basics

• You can fully customize the Home Screen. Place icons anywhere on the screen. Fans of dark mode can now enjoy alternate dark mode icons. If you have a color theme you want to match, you can tint icons to any hue you want.
• You can edit the buttons in Control Center. Add many more toggles and buttons, including those from third-party apps. You can resize some buttons to make them more prominent, and you can arrange your controls across multiple pages. In one fluid motion, you can swipe down to activate Control Center and continue swiping down to scroll through your pages.
• Standby turns your phone into a smart display when it’s sitting on your desk, your nightstand or the kitchen counter.
• Customize the Lock Screen with a bunch of widgets, aesthetics and styles. You have loads of fonts, colors, styles and themes available.

This article on how to block a number on iPhone was originally published on June 6, 2024. We updated it with the latest information on November 24, 2025.