Does IMessage Turn Green When Blocked? [We Answer]

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I chat with my siblings and friends via iMessage on a daily basis, but a few days ago, a good friend of mine stopped replying to my texts.

Today, my iMessage color turned green, and I was surprised as this has never happened before.

I grew anxious and tried to reach out to my friend a number of times but to no avail.

I sat down, opened a browser, and searched the Internet for an explanation for the green color of iMessage.

To get an answer, I read some articles, went through a few user forums, and checked Apple’s official website.

This article contains all the information related to the issue.

An iMessage turns green when another user blocks you on the app. It may also turn green if exchanged as an SMS/MMS. The messages from Android users are always green.

Further in the article, I have described in detail the various reasons for iMessage turning green, how to know if someone has blocked you, and information about the moon icon.

What Happens When Someone Blocks You on iMessage?

Getting blocked on the iMessage app can have a number of effects on your iMessage notifications.

If someone blocks you on iMessage, they will stop getting notifications from you.

This means that whenever you give them a call, send them a text message, or leave them a voicemail their phone will not show a notification or ring.

In other words, any inbound notification on the recipient’s phone automatically goes silent.

However, this does not mean they can not see the messages, voicemails, or calls they have received from you.

Does iMessage Turning Green Mean You are Blocked?

The iMessage app generally uses blue color for the messages sent through it. The information sent through the app is protected by encryption.

The blue color is a symbol that confirms the encryption of messages exchanged via the iMessage app.

For the messages sent as SMS/MMS, a green bubble shows around the message.

This SMS or MMS is transferred through the cellular network carrier, not Apple’s online messaging service.

The color coding that Apple uses is an efficient and intelligent signal to convey the status of messaging between users.

Also, sometimes, it can help in understanding if there are issues occurring on either end.

So in case, your iMessage turns green, this may indicate one of two possibilities:

• Your messages are being transferred in the SMS or MMS format.
• You have been blocked by the person you are sending messages to.

What Happens When You are Chatting With Someone and the iMessage Turns Green?

The iMessage app is an iOS-dedicated app. This means that only Apple device users can use it to communicate among themselves.

You can use this app to send text messages, photos, or videos to other iOS devices with the app. But these messages are sent only over the Wi-Fi or cellular data network.

On the other hand, the standard SMS or MMS does not require you to connect to the Internet, and the transfer takes place on the cellular carrier network.

As mentioned earlier, the iMessage turning green can mean one of two things.

Either the sender has an unstable Internet connection due to which they are contacting you via SMS/MMS, or they have blocked you on the iMessage app.

The iMessage app is an efficient way to know whether you have been blocked by another iOS user or not.

You can ask the person if they are connected to the Internet, and if they confirm, you have definitely been blocked on the app.

iMessage Turns Green When Chatting With Someone Who Uses Android

The iMessage app is solely available to iOS device users. You can enjoy encrypted messaging via this app, which is also color-coded in the software.

As of now, there is no messaging service exclusive to Android users. Based on this information, let’s have a look at what might happen if an iOS user and an Android user chat with each other.

When an Android phone user sends a message to an iPhone user through the SMS/MMS service or some other app, the iPhone will not recognize the iMessage encryption and hence convey the message as unencrypted.

As a result, the iPhone user will see this message in a green bubble.

This also means that the iOS user cannot know by seeing the message color whether the Android user has blocked them or not.

How to Know if Someone Blocked You on iMessage

There is no sure way to determine if you have been blocked on the iMessage app.

However, there are a few things you can try in order to get a better idea of what kind of situation you are in.

Check if you are blocked on call by the user

When someone has blocked you on their iPhone, they will not receive notifications if you try to contact them. But more specifically, you will not be able to contact them.

For example, if you call them, your call will go to voicemail after a single or no ring.

This means that although you are not able to contact them via voice call, you can leave voicemails for them.

Similarly, if you have blocked someone on your iPhone, you can receive and listen to their voicemails.

If the user has not activated their voicemail settings, you will receive a generic message after the ring stating that the user is currently unavailable.

That being said, there may be several reasons why your call is not received or sent to voicemail:

• The user dropped the call themselves and sent it to voicemail.
• The user you are trying to call is out of the mobile phone network coverage area.
• The phone of the user may be switched off or being restarted.
• The user may have switched their phone to ‘Do Not Disturb’ or ‘Airplane’ mode.
• The user may have restricted the incoming activity on a selected number of contacts or a list, and you may be on that list.

It is always better to avoid jumping to conclusions when experiencing something like this.

You should try waiting for a couple of hours or a day and let the person you are trying to contact get back to you. If that does not happen, try to reach them through different means.

Send an SMS/iMessage text to the user

Generally, the messaging app on the iPhone mentions the status of messages sent by a user.

This means that whenever you send a message, you will see the status as ‘Sent’ as long as it’s not delivered.

Once it is delivered, it will show the status as ‘Delivered’. And finally, when the recipient opens the message, the status changes to ‘Read’. But now you’re wondering if iMessage will say “delivered” if their phone is off.

Putting that aside, if a person blocks you, they will only receive your voicemails, not your messages.

Whereas the voicemails are sent to a ‘Blocked’ folder, the messages have no destination; they will only be sent and not delivered.

You should also keep in mind that the messaging app provides the user the option to hide their read receipts.

The ‘Read Receipts’ option allows the sender to see whether the receiver has read their message or not.

If the read receipts are hidden, the sender will not be able to view the status of their message.

Since the settings of each iPhone user are personal information, you cannot check whether a user has blocked you or simply turned off their read receipts.

Call the user with a hidden ID to check for block

If you suspect that someone is simply ignoring you, you may try to call them anonymously by using the ID hiding trick.

While dialing a number, add *67 before the number. This will hide your ID, and the receiver won’t know it’s you until they pick up the call.

What Does the Moon icon in iMessage Mean?

While using the iMessage app, you may encounter a situation when you send a message and get a notification that the user has enabled focus mode.

This notification will have a moon sign next to it. Many iOS users have been experiencing this on their messaging apps and do not know what this means.

iOS 15 has introduced a new feature named ‘Focus Mode’. This new feature allows the user to avoid distractions while the mode is on. It aims at increasing the productivity of the user.

It not only blocks the incoming notifications, but it also notifies the sender that the recipient has activated the ‘Focus Mode’, and thus the notification will either not be sent or sent at a later time.

Final Thoughts

Apple is known for the groundbreaking innovation, security, and privacy it provides to its users.

Its blocking mechanism is an example of the very same. If a user fears a security breach, blocking secures their information and privacy from other iOS or Android users.

Apart from the reasons mentioned in this article, the iMessage suddenly turning green may indicate that the user on the other side has switched to Android and no longer uses iOS services.

Although there is no definite way to tell if someone has blocked you on the iMessage app, it is always safe to assume that if it is a friend, you will receive a response sooner or later.

But if you do not feel satisfied, you may follow all the steps mentioned in the article and try contacting your friend for some explanation or closure.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why did my iMessage suddenly turn green?

Your iMessage suddenly turned green because either you have been blocked or the message was exchanged as an SMS/MMS.

Do blocked iMessages turn green?

Yes, the blocked iMessages turn green as they no longer get the iMessage encryption.

How do I know if I’m blocked on iMessage?

If you are blocked on iMessage, the recipient won’t receive your messages, your calls will be sent to voicemail, and your iMessage will turn green.