How To Block Text Messages on the Pixel 3

A lot of people these days seem to look at smartphones as pocket computers. While they may be just that given their many technological advances and similarities to laptops, PCs, and tablets, the main purpose of smartphones is an old one – sending and receiving phone calls and text messages.

Whether you’re using Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, or other instant messaging apps to communicate with your friends, text messages are still enabled by default on all smartphones.

This can sometimes lead to a clutter of incoming messages, especially if you purposefully use messaging apps over the phone’s messaging feature. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just turn off messaging or, at the very least, block contacts or numbers that just won’t stop contacting you via messages?

The Pixel 3, like any other phone, lets you do just that, and there are various ways to go about it.

Ignore List

The following method allows you to add numbers to your ignore list. This prevents any incoming messages and calls from those numbers from getting through to you.

1. Tap Phone on the Home Screen
2. Tap Menu
3. Tap Settings
4. Select Blocked Numbers
5. Tap Add a Number
6. Type In the Number That You Want to Block

Block Contacts

Here’s another way to go about preventing someone from sending text messages to your number.

1. Tap Phone on the Home Screen
2. Tap Call History
3. Tap on a Number or Contact That You Want to Block
4. Tap Block or Report as Spam

Other Temporary Solutions

If you want to block all incoming messages for a period of time, the Pixel 3 smartphones have two features that allow you to do just that.

Airplane Mode

Go to Settings and set your phone to Airplane mode. Once you enable this, you’ll have total radio silence. Airplane mode disables calls, messaging, and the Wi-Fi connection. If you’re looking for peace and quiet but you want to use certain apps, this feature gives you what you need without having to turn the phone off.

Do Not Disturb

The popular DND feature is another interesting solution. The Pixel 3 has “Flip to Shhh” enabled by default. This means that once you flip your phone and place it face down on a flat surface, you automatically enter DND mode. No calls or messages go through until you flip it back.

You can also configure DND to make certain exceptions. If you want, you can keep DND mode on but still allow calls to go through while blocking all incoming messages. Do keep in mind that both DND and Airplane mode block incoming calls and messages for all contacts and all unknown numbers too. You can’t set exceptions just for a few numbers.

Using the Carrier

From your Verizon account, or any other carrier, you have to option to block certain numbers. Depending on the carrier, you may have to pay extra whenever you want to block a new number. However, this is a still a solid option because the carrier blocks numbers from contacting your phone line.

This means that if you switch phones, those numbers will still be blocked.

A Final Thought

Blocking messages comes in handy if you find yourself bombarded with promotional text messages. The Pixel 3 allows you to ignore or block all 1-800 numbers so that you don’t have to resort to using third-party apps or pay a fortune to your carrier to stop the spamming.