Engadget Guide Explains How Android Users Can Block and Unblock Unwanted Callers
Engadget published a guide explaining how Android users can block and later unblock phone numbers through the Contacts or Phone app, noting that blocking is handled by the device rather than the carrier.
The guide notes that smartphones, despite their convenience and connectivity, also let scammers and spammers reach users through text messages and repeated calls. The exact blocking procedure varies across the Android ecosystem, but on most devices the Phone app or the Contacts app is the starting point.
On Samsung phones, the guide describes two routes. From the Contacts app, a user opens Contacts, selects the contact to be blocked, taps More, taps Block contact and confirms. For a number that is not saved, the Phone app route applies: open the Phone app, find and copy the number, tap the three-dot More menu in the top corner, select Settings, tap Block numbers, then tap Add phone number and paste or type the number before tapping the plus sign.
A shorter path exists for numbers that have called recently. In the Recents section of the Phone app, a user navigates to the number, taps Details, then More Options, then Block number.
The process is similar on a Google Pixel or another device running stock Android: open the Phone app, select the three-dot More menu, tap Call history, tap a call from the number to be blocked, and tap Block/report spam.
Once a number is blocked, the phone automatically declines its calls before they ring or appear on screen, and texts from it are usually filtered into a blocked or spam folder. The guide states that blocking is handled by the device rather than the carrier, so moving a SIM card to a different handset will likely require blocking the number again.
Unblocking follows a comparable route. In the Samsung Contacts app, a user opens Contacts, selects the contact, taps the three-dot More options menu and selects Unblock contact. From the Phone app, the user opens the app, taps More, selects Settings, taps Block numbers and then taps the minus sign beside the number to be unblocked. Pixel and stock Android users open the Phone app, tap More, select Settings, then Blocked numbers, and tap the x next to the number.
After a number is unblocked, it can call and text as normal. The guide adds that calls made from that number during the period it was blocked are not added to the call log, so that record remains lost.