Popular messaging platform WhatsApp has become very popular over the years and its constant nature of ever-evolving features makes it more interesting for users. It is available on Android and iOS devices but also runs on feature phones with KaiOS.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp allows users to block contacts which means if someone is not interested in talking to the other person, they can easily block him/her.
It is important to note that WhatsApp allows users to block other users silently which basically means that the other person won’t be able to know whether they are blocked or not. WhatsApp clarifies that users cannot find whether they are blocked or not directly but they can easily find out that:
WhatsApp in a blog post explained that if a user finds out that he cannot view your contact which means last seen or ‘online’ in the chat window, then it means that you are blocked by the other person. Notably, it is important to remember that the other person may have disabled this option for privacy.
On the other hand, even blocked users cannot see your profile which can also hint at the fact that the user must have removed or not uploaded the profile picture. The biggest indicator would be that the sent messages will not get delivered and the blocked user will only see a single tick next to the text in the chat window.
This can also be assumed in a way that users didn’t have internet connectivity and therefore, the messages didn’t get delivered. Besides that, calls will also not happen and this could be assumed as a lack of internet connectivity.
WhatsApp further said that if users get to see all these indicators, then it could obviously mean that they are blocked. “However, there are other possibilities. We have made this intentionally ambiguous in order to protect your privacy when you block someone. Thus, we cannot tell you if you are being blocked by someone else,” the Facebook-owned company said in a post.
There are several third-party apps that promise to track who’s blocked or not but it is advisable to stay away from them as much as they can lead to a breach of privacy.
#mute
