How to check if a phone number is active

Last Updated on September 13, 2022 by Kennedy

Even though it is not advisable to leave a cellphone number idle for a long period of time in order to avoid deactivation, there are certain situations that will make you to drop your sim card for a long period of time.

If a sim card stays idle for a number of weeks or years, the sim card will be deactivated depending on the network rule on sim card validity.

This leads us to the question of the day.

Table of Contents

How to check if a phone number is active?

To check if a phone number is active, simply put the sim card into a cell phone and check if it will detect the network service. Also check if yo cell the phone number and whether it can receive sms text messages.

Talking about how to check if a phone number is active, I will list all that you need to do in order to confirm if a sim card is active or probably not active.

1.1. Check the network service

This is very the first and foremost thing to do, to check if the sim card has an active network service or a cellular network service.

Now this requires you to insert your sim card into a mobile phone and wait for it to detect network service, if it does that it means the sim card is still OK though it may not be necessarily functioning.

However, if you insert a sim card into a mobile phone be it on android phone or the iPhone and it didn’t show any network or showed sim card not installed, it simply means that both the sim card and the phone number is no longer in service or active and may have been disconnected by the network service provider.

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1.2. Call the phone number

Another method to check if a phone number is active is by calling the phone number. If the call ends immediately without redirecting you to voicemail or show user busy before it ends, it is a strong indication that the phone number has been deactivated.

If someone’s phone is switched off or offline, calling the person will redirect you straight to voicemail though only if the person has an active voicemail on the phone.

Through phone call you will know if a phone number is active or not active.

1.3. By sending text messages

By sending text messages to a phone number will indicate if a phone number is active or not especially if the sent text message never showed delivered.

On iPhone; iMessage will say delivered if the sent text message was received in the recipient phone. If a sent iMessage never show delivered, it simply means that the recipient didn’t or yet to receive the sent iMessage due to the phone number linked with iMessage is not active.

On Android; All text messages do have a delivery report and it will indicate if a text message was delivered or not. If you send a text message using the sms text message or the rcs chat, it will definitely show delivered if the recipient received the sent text message.

If a sent text message never show delivered on android, please check if you enabled delivery report on your message app. If you do, then the reason for not saying delivered is because the recipient phone number is not active.

These are the methods to check if a phone number is active or not active.

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If a phone number is disconnected

If your phone number is disconnected or deactivated due to non payment of bills or validity, you should do this.

1.1. Pay your monthly phone bill

Immediately your monthly phone bill expires, you’re required to pay up your bill and failure to do that will have your line gets disconnected by your carrier.

Once a line or phone gets disconnected over non payment of phone bill, you won’t be able to use the phone for any cellular activities like calls, text messages or cellular data.

In general, the phone number will be inactive until you pay your monthly phone bill.

2.1. Contact your carrier

If you find out that your phone number has been disconnected or deactivated permanently or temporarily, it is good to contact your network service provider especially if you have left it for a long period of time without using the sim card.

If the phone number has not been assigned to another person, you will still be able to reactivate and use your number. However, if the phone number has been assigned to another customer, then there’s nothing you can do about it.

How to know if a number is active without calling

To know if a number is active without calling, kindly send a text message and see if it will say delivered. If it does say delivered, then it means the number is active.

If you are using an iPhone, do this by sending iMessages because if you send sms text message on your iPhone it won’t show delivery report and I’m talking about the green text message on iPhone.

The green text message on iPhone have a delivery except for iMessage.

Now if you’re using an android phone, be it sms text message or the rcs chat feature, you will receive a delivery report once a recipient receives a sent text message as long as delivery report is enabled on your phone.

Once a text message never says delivered, you will know if a number is active without calling.

How do you know if a phone number is inactive?

Once calls and text messages are not getting through to a phone number, it simply means that the phone number is inactive.

Talking about inactive doesn’t necessarily mean the phone number has been disconnected or deactivated but rather offline because the phone is switched off or in offline mode.

Here, calls and text messages will not get through to the recipient until the recipient phone number is active once again.

A typical method to to know if a recipient phone number is inactive is through calls. If you call the person and it redirect you straight to voicemail, it means the recipient phone number is inactive. Sometimes, it may be due to the fact that the recipient has blocked your number and that’s why you’re being redirected to voicemail.

How to check if number is deactivated

If your sim number is not able to receive cellular network service, make and receive calls and text messages, then it means the sim number has been deactivated by the network carrier.

This usually occurs if your sim card has been left idle for a long period of time and this is why it is not advisable to leave a sim card idle for a long time like three days to five years.

Some network gives a period of three years or to five years until the sim number will be deactivated, while some will take just two to deactivate a sim number that has not been used for calls and text messages.

How to check whatsapp number is active or not

To check if a whatsapp number is active or not, simply give the number a call and see if the call will go through. You can also send a text message to the whatsapp number and see if it will also get delivered.

If calls and text messages never get through to the recipient and you’re sure that the person didn’t block your number on whatsapp, then it means the whatsapp number is not active.

If a whatsapp number is active, both voice calls and audio calls will be received on the recipient phone, and text messages will show two marks which means the text has been delivered to the recipient.

How to check if a phone number is active