Someone Blocked You on WhatsApp: Visible?

Here’s everything about seeing someone online on WhatsApp when you’re blocked by them:

In short, you cannot see whether someone is online on WhatsApp if they blocked you.

Blocking is an exhaustive feature that aims to cut off all communication between a user and the person they block, and at the same time, it obscures the fact that a block occurred.

You can’t see any updates or directly contact them.

So if you want to learn all about what happens when someone on WhatsApp blocks you, then this article is for you.

Let’s jump right in!

Seeing One Online on Whatsapp if Blocked by Them? (Know All)

What Does It Look Like When You Are Blocked on WhatsApp? (3 Points)

Ok. For starters, you can’t see if someone is online when they block you, but you can hide your online status on WhatsApp anyways.

So, that alone isn’t clearly telling you that you have been blocked or even why you can’t see when they are online.

In reality, blocking on WhatsApp is pretty thorough.

Anything it does to you as the person who is blocked it also does to the person who blocked you. They can’t see when you are online either.

The only real difference between the blocker and the blocked is that the power resides with the blocker. They can choose to unblock you at any time.

With all of that said, there are a few things you can expect when you are blocked, and understanding the experience can help you navigate being blocked by someone.

The process certainly makes it so that you can’t call or message the person who blocked you, but it doesn’t tell you that this is the case.

It’s more subtle. So many people never realize they have been blocked.

Additionally, WhatsApp changes how you interact with the profile of someone who blocked you.

Once again, it’s subtle, but knowing the details of each of these interactions can help.

#1 Viewing Their Profile

If you look at the profile of someone who blocked you, there will be no overt indication that you have been blocked.

Instead, you will never be able to see the indicator that they are online. Also, you won’t see their last seen.

On top of that, you won’t ever see updates to their profile or picture.

In some cases, you might not see their picture at all, but this isn’t always how it looks.

The idea is that when you are blocked, you can’t even passively communicate with the other user by seeing these indicators.

The block is exhaustive, and WhatsApp is no longer a way for you to reasonably communicate with that person. That is by design.

#2 Messages

The profile view isn’t the only thing affected by being blocked.

The most noticeable difference happens with messages.

When someone blocks you, you can still send them messages, and it looks pretty normal.

You even get the nice little checkmark that shows the message was sent.

But, you will never see an indicator that the message was received.

Now, WhatsApp doesn’t universally show that messages are received in the first place, but if you used to get that indicator with a user and now you don’t, you might have been blocked.

Despite that, the messaging will mostly look the same. You can still see existing conversations that you had before. They don’t get deleted.

The only real difference is that while you are blocked, that other user will never respond to any of your messages.

In fact, they can’t.

WhatsApp prevents users from sending messages to contacts that are actively blocked.

That said, they could potentially unblock you and then send a message.

#3 Calling

Man with a concerned look while looking at his phone.

Calling with WhatsApp when you are blocked will be a lot like messaging.

You can place the call and try to contact them, but there will never be a voice connection.

They will never receive any notifications that you are trying to call, so an active line is never established.

But, you never get a message that you have been blocked. The experience is identical to when you try to call someone who doesn’t have their phone on them.

They don’t know about it, and you never actually connect to them.

The difference here is that it will remain like this unless they decide to unblock you at some point.

How Do You Know If You Were Blocked on WhatsApp? (2 Ways)

Based on everything above, it should be pretty obvious when you are blocked, right?

Actually, no.

WhatsApp puts a lot of effort into making it tough to be sure if you have been blocked or not.

Sure, your messages don’t get delivered, but that can happen even when you aren’t blocked.

So, if you really want to know for sure if you’ve been blocked or not, you can’t use the app to find out (which is how the WhatsApp developers like it).

Instead, you’ll need to think of other ways to try to get the information you want, and it’s not always easy or reliable.

#1 Ask

This only works if the person who potentially blocked you is a family member or close friend.

You might have friends in common or other ways to communicate with them. Through those means, you can try to ask if you were blocked.

Some people will be direct about it.

Others won’t.

You’ll have to use your own judgment to discern the best way forward.

But, because of how WhatsApp is designed, you won’t really know if you’ve been blocked unless you can get direct confirmation from the user in question.

#2 Test WhatsApp

The tricky thing about being blocked on WhatsApp is that the developers make it ambiguous on purpose.

Being blocked looks just like a lot of technical issues that can and do occur on the app.

So, if you’re having trouble communicating on the app in general, then you might not have any messages delivered regardless of the user.

You also might have limited connectivity or account problems that only show up sometimes.

The easiest way to really test all of this is to create a second account and add yourself to both accounts. Then you can send test messages and see what it all looks like.

You can also block yourself to see what that looks and feels like in order to have a clearer idea of the interactions.

You’ll still never know for sure if the other user doesn’t outright tell you, but you can make educated guesses from here.

Can You See Whether Someone Is Online on Whatsapp When You Blocked Them?

On another note, what if someone when you blocked someone instead of being blocked?

Can you still see whether the person is online?

You cannot see whether someone is online on WhatsApp if they are blocked.

In the same way, they cannot see your last seen status or whether you are online when you block them.

In WhatsApp, blocking is intended to obscure active and passive communication, making it difficult for people to interact even indirectly.

Learn all about what happens when you block someone on WhatsApp here.

Author

Theresa McDonough

Tech entrepreneur and founder of Tech Medic, who has become a prominent advocate for the Right to Repair movement. She has testified before the US Federal Trade Commission and been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, helping influence change within the tech industry.

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