Why imessage doesn’t say delivered but phone rings? Explained

This post gives you a detailed explanation on the reason why imessage doesn’t say delivered but phone rings.

It is quite confusing when you sent an iMessage to a recipient which didn’t go through or say delivered, but when you dialed the person’s number it went through.

At first, you may think if the recipient has blocked your number or any issue whicg you are not aware of. This leads us to the question of the and which I will explain everything to you.

Table of Contents

Why iMessage doesn’t say delivered but phone rings?

This usually occurs if the recipient iMessage is not available due to no internet connection or you have been blocked by the recipient on iMessage.

Before going further into the article kindly note that you shouldn’t conclude that you have been blocked by the recipient as many a time it is not usually the case especially if you are able to call the person through facetime or phone app.

If iMessage doesn’t say delivered but phone rings, there are several reasons why such is happening and which I will explain below.

1. When iMessage is unavailable

This is the first and foremost thing to have in mind especially if you can still reach the person through phone calls. It is likely that the recipient iMessage is unavailable and whicg may be caused by these various reasons.

When There Is No Active Internet Connection: As iMessage is an instant messaging service, it requires internet connection to send and receive iMessages or text messages. If an iPhone or iPad has no active internet connection, iMessage will never get through to the recipient phone.

When asking why iMessage doesn’t say delivered but phone rings, it is likely that the recipient iPhone has no active internet connection. The iPhone having no internet connection doesn’t affect cellular calls as it will go through.

However, if the call you are talking about is facetime call, then you have a point here simply because facetime audio call and video call requires internet connection. But if it is not a facetime call but rather cellular calls then there’s nothing to worry unless this happen on multiple different occasion.

iMessage is disabled in the recipient iPhone: This is quite rare to see but it does happen. I have seen where someone disabled it’s iMessage for a reason best known to him. Now if iMessage is disabled on the recipient iPhone, don’t expect sent iMessages to get delivered to the recipient phone cause it won’t happen.

In this type of scenario what you will see while sending iMessages to the recipient will be Not Delivered with a red exclamation mark.

Below is a typical example of what I’m talking about.

This is a typical example of someone who’s iMessage is disabled or probably changed the Apple ID or phone number linked with it’s iMessage.

2. You are sending IMessages to the wrong ID

Sometimes one might decide to change it’s iMessage account with another phone number or Apple ID. In this type of situation if you happen to send a message to the person’s old previous email address or phone number activated with it’s iMessage, the text message won’t go through.

Infact the text message or the iMessage will show not delivered with an exclamation mark.

This has happened to me.

A colleague of mine changed the email address connected to his iMessage and all text messages I sent showed a red not delivered with an exclamation mark. When I called him the call went through and he told me that he changed his Apple ID and which he gave to me.

Why am I saying this?

I’m saying this because the first thing that came to my mind was this guy has blocked my contact and I try to understand the reason for such, I was more confused when I called him and the call went through.

So you may be wondering why iMessage doesn’t say delivered but phone rings, it may be due to the fact that the recipient has changed the Apple ID or the phone linked to it’s iMessage account.

3. Truly you may have been blocked by the recipient

So this is the last reason why iMessage doesn’t say delivered but phone rings, you may have been blocked by the recipient.

Now let me explain how blocking s contact works on iPhone.

On iPhone, if you block someone on the message app the person will still be able to contact you through phone calls like the cellular calls and facetime calls.

In order to prevent the person from contacting you with any means on your iPhone, then you simply have to block the person on your message app, phone app, facetime app and even on other instant messaging apps and services like whatsapp, Skype, Facebook messenger, telegram, Google voice, etc.

Once you have done this the person won’t be able to contact you.

Also, if you happen to block someone on the phone app on your iPhone, the person won’t be able to call your number but the person can send you an sms text message and iMessage.

The person can also call you through facetime app on it’s iPhone or iPad.

And this may be the case of iMessage doesn’t say delivered but phone rings.

The person may have blocked you on the message app and but not on phone app or the facetime app.

How do you know if someone blocks your iMessage?

To know if someone blocked you on iMessage, after sending couple of iMessages on different occasion and they didn’t get delivered, it is a strong indication that you have been blocked.

First, you must not draw conclusion that you are blocked by the recipient as the reverse may be the case.

To find out if truly the recipient has blocked you on it’s iMessage, try to use another Apple ID or phone number to send iMessage to the recipient and see if it will get delivered. If it does get delivered then it simply means the recipient blocked you on it’s message app.

The truth here is that when iMessage fails to say delivered after several sent iMessages on different occasion and different time, it is likely you may have been blocked by the recipient.

Once you sent an iMessage and which it didn’t say delivered, it means the recipient didn’t receive the sent iMessage.

How to block someone on iMessage

To bloc someone on iMessage, simply open the message app, locate and open the conversation you had with the person and open the person info.

Right at the bottom you will see the button that says block this caller.

Go ahead and tap on block this caller and the contact will be blocked on your message app. This means the person will no longer be able to send messages to your iPhone.

When someone blocks you on iPhone do the messages turn green?

If someone blocks you on iPhone the messages doesn’t turn green it will still be blue but rather it won’t show delivered.

For a text message to show green which indicates sms text message, it simply means the phone number you are sending messages to isn’t linked or activated with iMessage.

A typical example is when sending a text message to an android phone user.

If you happen to send a green message to a fellow iPhone user, then you should know recipient phone number isn’t linked or activated with iMessage. In this type of situation you will have to ask the recipient the phone number or Apple ID used to activate it’s iMessage.

What happens when you put Do Not Disturb on iMessage?

When you put do not disturb on iMessage, it will silence the message notification but the message will be delivered.

Please note that do not disturb does not prevent or blocks messages from getting delivered on iPhone. You can send sms text message or iMessage while your phone is on do not disturb mode, same goes to receiving sms text messages and iMessages while your iPhone is on do not disturb.

But remember your message notification will be silenced and this will prevent you from knowing that you have received a text message on your iPhone.

Am I blocked if iMessage doesn’t say delivered?

You may not be necessarily blocked by the recipient, but instead the recipient iMessage is not available or active.

However, if after a couple of days and still you can’t seem to send iMessages to very particular contact then it is likely that he or she has you on it’s message app.

Try to call the person and see if it will go through and if it doesn’t then it is mostly likely that you have been blocked by the person. This also goes to the question being asked on why iMessage doesn’t say delivered but phone rings.