Maybe you need to call a friend or even a customer but aren’t sure if they are available. There is a way you can find out if their phone is on or off without having to risk calling them and it’s all to do with texting instead.
Read this article to find out how you can find out if someone’s phone is off, no matter what texting service you use.
How Can I Tell if Someone’s Phone Is Off Using SMS?
We all know that if you call someone and their phone is off, it will go straight to voicemail, but sometimes you might need to know if their phone is off, without risking that call. The way we do this differs depending on which texting service you use so we will explain them all.
If you are using SMS messaging to contact someone then the best way to know if their phone is on or off is by seeing if the message gets delivered.
If a message isn’t delivered it doesn’t always mean the phone is off. It could also be that their phone is out of service which can mean that they do not have Wi-Fi or internet connection and they will likely receive the text as soon as they obtain a connection again.
Depending on your device an undelivered message can show differently so we will explain it separately on Android and iPhone.
Android Method
On Android, if you send a text and it doesn’t get received then underneath the text it will say the time you sent it and ‘undelivered’.
If this happens your phone will likely notify you that the SMS hasn’t been sent.
If you get the ‘delivered’ writing and the time next to it under the message then it means that the person has their phone switched on and within service and has received the message.
iPhone Method
Similarly, iPhone has the same concept as Android, but it doesn’t show the time you sent the message, just the ‘not delivered’.
If the SMS is undelivered you will get a red badge notification on your messages icon that will show you that your message hasn’t been delivered.
Also after entering the messages, you will see a red “!” and “not delivered” next to the text that hasn’t been delivered.
If the person receives the message you don’t get any writing under it but it won’t show the undelivered icon so you know it has been received by the person.
How Can I Tell If Someone’s Phone Is Off Using iMessage?
Now iMessage is only available for iPhone users and it’s very similar to the SMS method of finding out if someone’s phone is on or off.
Firstly, to use this the recipient must also have an iPhone and have iMessage activated, this is essential. Otherwise, the messages will simply be sent as normal SMS messages.
Send your message and check if you see the “Delivered” under it. If not, and if it is blank then your iMessage hasn’t been sent. In some cases, your phone will alert you and ask you if you want to send the message as SMS. If so the same process will be as above.
If you send an iMessage and it says “Delivered” underneath then it means that the message has been sent and delivered as an iMessage to the other person’s phone.
Also, the “Read” can appear on some iMessages if the other person has that enabled on their phone. This will show ‘read’ when they have opened and read the message so it’s a sure sign that the other person is online and available.
How Can I Tell If Someone’s Phone is Off Using WhatsApp?
Both Android and iPhone users can access WhatsApp and the delivered or undelivered process of messaging is exactly the same.
Firstly, to eliminate any confusion, if you send a WhatsApp message and next to your message you have a little clock going round and round, that doesn’t mean that the message is undelivered, it means the message hasn’t been sent from your side.
If you send a message and it only appears with one tick next to it then the message has been safely sent from your phone, but not received by the other phone. Again, this could be because the phone is off or out of service.
If you send a message and two ticks appear next to the message then the message has been delivered to the recipient.
There is the option for the ‘blue ticks’ and this means that the message has been opened and read by the recipient. Similar to iPhones you can choose if you want to show people when you have read a message or not on WhatsApp.
Sometimes the two ticks could mean that the person has read the message, but they have the ‘blue ticks’ disabled. Often people do this when they don’t want others to know when they have opened messages.
Therefore bear this in mind, if you don’t see the two blue ticks, the person still could have opened the message.
