There are many reasons for blocking someone, apart from obvious privacy concerns. Whatever they may be, at some point, you might want to see what the other person had said to you when he or she was blocked from your contact list.
So, do blocked messages get delivered when unblocked? Sadly, the answer is no. there’s no way to get those messages that they sent when they were blocked by you. Unless of course they send them again after you’ve unblocked them.
Continue reading below to learn more about block policy in popular messaging and social media platforms.
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What Happens to Blocked Messages When Unblocked?
Do you get their messages after you unblock them if you block them? When you unblock someone, do you get any messages? No. After you unblock that person, none of those communications will be delivered to you. Because banning a contact prevents him or her from sending you any form of message.
It won’t go through if a blocked number tries to send you a text message. The messages will still arrive in your inbox, but they will be routed to a separate “Unknown Senders” folder. You won’t get any alerts for these texts, either. Blocked contacts’ calls go straight to voicemail. If they leave a message for you, you’ll notice a separate “Blocked Messages” category in your voicemail inbox. When you unblock someone, what happens to their texts? Text messages (SMS, MMS) sent to banned contacts (phone numbers or email addresses) are not shown on your device.
When you unblock a contact, any communications sent to you while it was blocked are not visible. If you block a contact, their texts will be ignored. The person whose number you’ve banned will receive no notification that their message to you has been blocked; their text will just sit there, appearing to have been sent but not yet delivered, but it will be lost in the ether.
Messaging Policy in Different Apps
Here’s what happens when you block someone on some of the most popular messaging platforms.
Snapchat
Snapchat takes it the furthest when it comes to privacy. Because when you’ve blocked someone in Snapchat, they will still see their own message sent to you as “Delivered.” However, you won’t receive a thing. That’s how Snapchat prevents the other person from knowing that you’ve blocked him or her.
WhatsApp allows you to message people who have blocked you, however, you’ll see only one tick mark beside your messages. Which means they haven’t received it. The received message is indicated by two ticks in WhatsApp.
Also, they won’t receive any of the previously sent messages when they unblock you.
Messenger
Facebook Messenger has the most straightforward approach to this. because when you block someone, they can’t send you any messages whatsoever. They will simply see the message that “you cannot reply to this message.”
How to Recover Blocked Messages
This is only possible for messaging apps in Android and not iMessage. To recover blocked messages in Android, do the following:
- In the Messages app, tap and open the three-dot menu
- Find Spam & Blocked option there and tap on it
- There you can see all the conversations that have been blocked. You can read, reply and copy those too.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Can you see if a blocked number has tried to text you?
No, you cannot see if a blocked number has tried to text you. Those messages simply get discarded by your phone. So, it is not saved anywhere unless it’s an Android. In that case, follow the method we’ve described above.
Can someone tell if you unblock them?
There is no direct way of telling if they’ll know when you unblock them. In the case of Messenger and WhatsApp however, they’ll notice when they send you new messages. But not by looking at their old messages. Another thing they might notice is that they’ll be able to see your status updates again.
Conclusion
When a text message is sent, your device sends a handshake indicating receipt to the messaging system. A message can be delivered to someone who is offline via this handshake. When the system meets a block, the message is not delivered, but the handshake is, and the system deletes the message as if it had been transmitted. When you unblock a contact, any communications sent to you while it was blocked are not visible.
