Hanging out with friends on Snapchat can be a lot of fun, but sometimes things can go a little sideways. Maybe you said something you shouldn’t have in a message or made a post that turned someone off. If you can’t find a friend you’ve previously connected with on the app, it’s possible you’re blocked. Here’s how to tell if someone blocked you on Snapchat.
How you can tell if someone blocked you on Snapchat
There are several different approaches you can try to tell if you’ve been blocked by someone on Snapchat. You don’t need to use all of them, but if you try a couple and still see no signs of your friend, the odds are good you’ve been blocked.
Of course, they might have also deleted their account without telling you. You can always try to reach them outside the app for a final confirmation if you have their contact information.
Unfriended vs. blocked on Snapchat
Blocking someone is different from being removed from a Friends list, too. While blocking someone removes you from a person’s friend list, you can still see the other person is active on Snapchat if you’ve only been unfriended. Once blocked, however, you’ll have a difficult time locating that person on the app.
For example, you’ll only see the remainder of any previously held conversations. You won’t be able to message the person anymore. You also won’t be able to see the other person’s Story or Charms or receive their Snaps and Chats.
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Try the following options if you think you’ve been blocked:
Search their full name or username
One quick way to tell if you’ve been blocked is to search for your friend using their full name, their Snapchat username or their email address. If you can still see them, you might not have been blocked.
Snapchat makes this part a little tricky. If you search for someone you had recent conversations with, the app might still show you that person’s message chain, making it seem as if you are still friends. Use the person’s email address, on the other hand, and you won’t see them at all if you’ve been blocked.
Usernames are unique, but people can and do change their full names on Snapchat, so that could be another reason you’re not seeing someone show up.
If you’re getting mixed signals about what’s happening at this stage, move on to the next step.
Check your Snapchat contact list
See if the person you’re looking for is still in your Friends list by tapping your bitmoji and scrolling down to My Friends. If you see the person, tap the name. If you can see a conversation with the person, check it carefully.
Current contacts will allow you to message them and you’ll also see recent conversations, but sometimes the app can show you someone is still a friend when they really aren’t.
If you can’t see the person at all in your Friends list, it’s another clue you’ve either been blocked or the other person has left Snapchat. Keep up the detective work a little bit more.
Check recent conversations
If you do see your friend, tap the name and take a look at conversations between the two of you. Are you seeing any responses from your friend from previous conversations? Or does it look like you have been the only person saying anything?
If you’re not seeing responses, this is your strongest clue that you’ve been blocked by someone. When blocked, you could see information like “Delivered” under previous conversations, but the entire conversation has been removed.
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If you haven’t had a recent conversation with the person, though, you might not see any messages. Maybe you cleared your history at some point or the conversations got deleted some other way. It’s possible you might still be friends so keep up your search.
Send them a message
You can also try sending a message, but if you’ve been blocked, it won’t go anywhere. You might even see an automated response indicating a failure to send the message or, worse, it could appear that your message went through just fine. Your biggest clue here is the inability to see responses from the other person.
Sometimes a message will indicate a Pending status. This is different from blocking. It means you’ve probably been deleted from someone’s contact list but not blocked. Messages in this status might or might not go through.
Check their Stories tab
When you’ve been blocked, you won’t be able to see the other person’s Story or Charms. If you’re unable to see the person, their Story, Charms, messages and other details, you have another strong confirmation you’ve been blocked.
Search their name using a different device
Technology being touchy could mean your device is acting up, your internet connection is wonky or any number of other things could be going wrong. If you think your device might be the problem, switch to another. Use a tablet instead of a smartphone to open your Snapchat account and search for your friend.
Be sure your connections are all working, too, and see if you can find the person using this approach.
Search their name from a different account
If you’re still unsure if you’ve been blocked at this point, a last option is to ask a friend to search for the person on Snapchat. If a third party can see your friend, add them to their Friends list, message them, see their Stories and Charms … that’s the final confirmation you need to know: You’ve been blocked on Snapchat.
You might never know why you were blocked on Snapchat. If you’re trying to find someone to share information with them, using options beyond social media can frequently be better choices. BeenVerified’s search tools can be very helpful in all kinds of situations, for example. It might not be the same as seeing the social activities of your friend but sometimes just the ability to contact someone when you need to is all you really need.