A few years back, I had just finished a long hard day’s work when my mobile phone rang. And as I would normally do at that time, I automatically picked up the phone and answered it. On the other end was a woman who tried to convince me to make a claim against my car insurance so that I could get a large payout and of course for implementing the claim her company a commission! Seriously the call was uninvited from myself and it was at that point that I realized that I had to try and find a way to block calls like this from coming in.
Fortunately, if you have an Android phone there are a number of ways in which you can block calls and all of these methods can be completed within a few easy taps. So I am going to share with you how to block calls like this on your Android smartphone.
Block Calls within Android 6.0 Marshmallow Dialler
If you have an Android handset running on Marshmallow, then there is some good news. You can block calls from within the dialler and it is just a few taps away! Apparently Android users have been asking Google to include this option in Android for a few years and lucky for them it actually listened.
This is the simplest method, all you have to do is select a number from your call logs and long press it. Now when the pop-up window appears select the “Block number” option.
This option only works on stock Android, so if you have a none stock device such as a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, you will have to use the slightly more long winded method of going to the call blocking list. However, there is some good news, the block calls list is almost the same on every device, and the menus could be named differently. On the stock nexus phone, you have to tap the three dotted button to get to the dialler menu and on Samsung phones you would have to tap more.
So, now you can jump straight in and enter the dialler often referred to as the phone app, once there, you will have to tap the three dots in the top right and read more on a Samsung.
Next you will have to select “Settings “and then “Call blocking” Then in the next window you will be able to add numbers to block calls from. To do this simply tap “Add Number” or the “Block List” option, and type in whatever number you wish to prevent calling you. Whilst here you can also choose the number of an existing contact, once done it is easy to remove a number should you wish too.
Block Calls By Sending them to Voicemail
Unfortunately older versions of Android do not have the ability to block calls automatically, so to do this on a handset running on them we will have to do something different. This next method, instead of truly blocking a call will send an unwanted caller to your voicemail. There are actually two ways to do this, from the dialler and from your contacts list.
However, no matter which way you prefer to start with you will have to go to the contact you want to block calls from and then edit the entry in the address book. When you enter edit menu, you need to tap the three-dot overflow button, which is in the top right of the screen. You should now look for and select “All calls to voicemail”.
The main difference between this method and the first I shared with you is that if you have more than one number for the contact you want to block calls from it will send all calls from all associated numbers to your voice mail.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it, two methods that allow you to block calls on your Android phone, just remember that the first works on Android 6.0 and above, and the 2nd on 6.0 and below. If you try all of these and still receive unwanted calls from people outside of your contacts such as withheld numbers, you could always try to ask your carrier for help.
