How to Call Someone Who Blocked Your Number

How blocking actually works: when someone blocks you, their phone or carrier is filtering a number — not you personally. Calls from that number are silenced or sent straight to voicemail. Anything arriving from a different number, or with no caller ID at all, is not matched against that block list.

That is the whole technical picture, and everything below follows from it. So does the caveat at the end, which you should read before using any of it.

First, confirm you are actually blocked

Several things look like a block and are not. A phone that is off, in Do Not Disturb, or has Silence Unknown Callers switched on all behave similarly.

One ring, then voicemail. The classic signal. Blocked calls are typically cut short like this.
Straight to voicemail every time, at any hour. A phone that is genuinely off does this too, but not consistently across days.
Messages stop delivering. On iMessage, blue bubbles that stop showing Delivered are suggestive, though not conclusive — the same happens when someone switches to SMS or has no data.
Compare with another number. If a call from a different phone connects normally and yours does not, that is your answer.

None of these is definitive on its own. Neither Apple nor Android tells you that you have been blocked, and that is deliberate.

Withholding your caller ID

Dialling *67 before the number in the US and Canada, or 141 in the UK, hides your caller ID for that call. Because the block list matches on a number and none is being presented, the call can ring through.

It works less often than people expect. Both iOS and Android now offer settings that send calls with no caller ID straight to voicemail, and many people who block numbers have exactly that switched on. Carrier-level blocking, and third-party call-screening apps, also handle withheld numbers separately.

It also announces itself. A call from “No Caller ID” after someone has blocked you is not subtle, and it is usually understood for what it is.

Calling from a different number

The most reliable method technically, and the one that most clearly raises the question of whether you should. A different phone, a work line, or a second number will not be on the block list.

Worth knowing: many people who block one number will block the next one too, and some carriers and phones let users block whole ranges or route all unknown callers to voicemail. It also tends to escalate the situation rather than resolve it.

Other channels

Blocks are usually per-platform. Being blocked on a phone number does not block you on:

WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal — separate block lists, unless they blocked you there too
Email
Social media direct messages
A mutual contact who can pass on a message

If the reason for contact is legitimate and urgent — a shared child, a legal matter, a family emergency — email or a mutual contact is both more likely to work and less likely to be read as evasion.

What does not work

Calling repeatedly. The block does not weaken. It logs.
“Unblock” codes and apps. Nothing you dial from your end changes settings on someone else’s phone. Sites and apps advertising this are scams.
Leaving voicemails on iPhone. Voicemails from blocked numbers land in a separate Blocked Messages section that most people never open.
Spoofing their contacts’ numbers. Caller-ID spoofing to deceive someone is illegal in the US under the Truth in Caller ID Act and comparable law elsewhere, and it carries substantial penalties.

The part that matters more than the methods

Blocking a number is a person saying they do not want to be contacted. Getting through once may be a misunderstanding resolved. Doing it repeatedly, from different numbers, after that message has been made clear, is what harassment statutes describe — and courts treat deliberate circumvention of a block as evidence of intent rather than as a technicality.

If there is a restraining or protective order in place, any contact at all, by any method, breaches it. That includes messages sent through a third party.

The situations where working around a block is reasonable are narrow and usually obvious: a genuine emergency, a debt or legal notice that must be served, a family member you have lost contact with through a misunderstanding. In almost every other case the block is the answer, and the more useful question is what would make them want to unblock you.

If you are the one blocking

iPhone: Settings → Apps → Phone → Blocked Contacts. Turn on Silence Unknown Callers in the same menu to stop withheld-number calls.
Android: Phone app → menu → Settings → Blocked numbers, with an option to block unknown callers.
At the carrier: most will block a number at network level on request, which is stronger than a handset block.
If it continues from new numbers, keep a log with dates and times. That record is what police and courts act on.

FAQs

Does the person know when I try to call?

Generally not. Blocked calls do not notify, though they may appear in a blocked-calls list some phones keep.

Can I text someone who blocked me?

The message sends from your side and is never delivered. It will look normal to you.

Does *67 work on a blocked number?

Sometimes. It defeats a number-matched block but not a setting that routes withheld numbers to voicemail, which is common.

Will they be unblocked if they get a new phone?

Block lists sync with the account on both iOS and Android, so a new handset usually keeps them.