What happens when all of a sudden you can not reach the person you are trying to get ahold of via phone or text? What could be the reason that your calls to them are coming back as invalid or that the texts can’t reach a user and are being bounced back to you?
Perhaps the reason why these calls are not making it through or you’re receiving bounced texts when you try to get ahold of the person is because they recently changed their phone number and you simply are trying to contact their old number.
This can be a result of many things and it could simply mean they haven’t had the chance to update you on their new phone number.
Whatever the reason may be, there are some ways for you to know if the person you are trying to contact has recently changed their number and this does not necessarily mean that you have to ask. Read on to find out.
Can You Tell If Someone Changed Their Number?
Yes. You can tell if someone changed their number by listening out for specific things that happen when you call them. When you call a number that isn’t recognized anymore, there will be a series of indicators that’ll let you know they’ve changed their number.
How to Know If Someone Changed Their Number
People change phone numbers all the time and for many reasons. Whether it was because they misplaced their old phone or their phone number was leaked and accessed by people who they do not wish to have their number known by, this is not a big deal when it comes to communication so long as you are aware that they have changed their phone number.
Also, if you have not been recently told that the other person has changed their number, do not take this too personally.
As life moves forward, many people make changes to their number something that is not a big deal and might even forget that they changed their number in the first place.
But if you are trying to communicate with the other person within a certain time frame, then you should be able to reach out to the other person to get their new number.
But before that, you might want to verify that the person you are trying to contact has indeed changed their number.
Luckily, there are some ways that you can follow in order to get some idea that the other person has changed their number.
1. When You Call Their Old Number, It Says Their Number Isn’t Recognized
One of the first things you will want to do when trying to contact another person is to shoot them a quick call and get a hold of them.
If whenever you try to call their number, you are not able to get through, then you might want to consider that the number you are trying to reach has been changed.
When this happens, a change in number will be quite obvious as when are trying to make a phone call, you will not be able to get through and make the phone call. The scenario should go a little like this.
When you try to make the phone call to the person you are trying to contact, the phone number you call will say that it is not recognized.
Unless you have made a typo and typed in the number incorrectly, then you can go ahead and assume that because you are receiving a message that says the number is not recognized, then the number has been changed by the other user.
This is one of the first signs that the number that used to be used by the person you are trying to contact has been changed or they have blocked you from being able to contact them.
2. When You Text Them on iMessage, It Goes Green
The next troubleshooting method of figuring out whether the person you are trying to contact has changed their phone number only applies to any user who is trying to contact someone who also uses an iPhone.
When you use an iPhone and specifically when you text someone else on iMessage, you will notice that when you do send a text to the other person, you will be able to see that the bubbles in which those texts are sent are the color blue.
If you have ever tried to text a user that is not an iPhone user, you will notice that the text bubbles in which your messages are being sent are green instead of blue like they are with iPhone users.
This is one thing that you can use in order to see if you can find out if the other person has indeed changed their phone number.
If you knew that the person you are trying to contact was previously using an iPhone, then if the person is still using the number that you are trying to contact them with, the text bubbles that will show when you send them a message should show up as a color blue.
If they do end up showing with a blue color, then this means that the other person has not changed their phone number and you are contacting the right number.
The second scenario is a better representation of what would be the case if the person you are trying to contact has changed their phone number.
If you are trying to contact someone who you know has an iPhone and when you do end up texting them, then the text bubbles, as mentioned, will be blue.
If they have changed their number, the text bubbles will show up as green and this is regardless of whether they have an iPhone or not.
Once you see these green bubbles, you should get a better idea that the other person you are trying to contact has changed their phone number.
Go ahead and give this method a shot if you believe that the other user who owns an iPhone truly did change their phone number.
3. When You Call Them, It Goes to Voicemail
Another method that you will want to consider is something that will happen in the case that you are trying to contact someone via phone and when you call them, you start to notice that the calls do not go through and they instead go to voicemail directly.
If you want to go ahead and try to see if this is the case, then you simply have to follow a few quick steps in order to get this verified.
You will want to ensure that you are correctly typing out the number, especially if the number is not saved within your contacts.
If the number is saved in your contacts, then this can go ahead and prevent any kind of errors that may be happening when you are trying to give them a call in the first place.
Once you have verified that the number you are trying to call is the correct one, start the call and stay on until either the other person answers or if the person did indeed go ahead and change their number then there will only be one thing that will happen.
In the case that the other user has changed their number, the phone call will automatically go to voicemail, and you will not be able to proceed with the rest of the call since you have been sent directly to the user’s old voicemail.
4. When You Call Them, Someone Else Picks Up
When someone else changes their phone number, there are several things that will start to happen when they do end up changing their number.
Some may not be as obvious, such as never receiving any calls or texts back and wondering the reason behind that.
And others can be a bit more obvious and will be better signs that tell you that the person you are trying to contact has gone ahead and changed their phone number.
One of the most obvious signs that the person you are trying to reach has changed their number is that when you try to call them up, someone else picks up the call instead of who you really want to contact.
If you want to go ahead and test this out and see if this is really happening to you, then all you need to do is the following few things. You will want to go ahead and try to contact the person you are trying to get a hold of.
Again, always make sure that the number you are using in order to reach the person you are trying to call is correct and that there are no typos in the number you typed out.
Now that you have verified that the number is correct, you will want to go ahead and give that person a quick call, and this is where you want to be super cautious and pay close attention to the voice of the person that answers when you call them.
The reason this is being said is that many times when someone goes ahead and changes their number, this number will go ahead and be either completely thrown away or given to someone else to use.
This is fairly common and phone companies do this all the time so if you’ve ever gotten a text message or a call from an unknown number, it might be because they believe that you are someone else they are trying to contact.
If this is the case for you, when you try to contact someone who has gone ahead and changed their number, you will notice that someone you don’t even know will be the one who is answering the phone call instead.
If this happens to you, then the person you are trying to contact has changed their phone number.
5. They Never Call or Text Back
Something that might not be as obvious as the previous method in figuring out if the person you are trying to contact has changed the number you are trying to call or text is that they never return any of your calls or texts in the first place.
The reason that this can be a bit more out of reach than some of the other methods is that when someone simply does not call or text you back, it could be for plenty of other reasons that do not include them having to change their number in order for you to notice that they might have changed their number.
Someone might just be really busy that they have not had the chance to give you a call back or respond to the text that you sent them a few hours ago.
Another case could be that the other person might just be ignoring you as well and even though this is mostly something that no one really wants happening to them, it also rules out the scenario that the person you are trying to contact has changed their number completely.
But if the user has previously been able to respond to your calls and text messages within a timely manner, then this might be something that you actually want to consider could be a sign that the other user has gone ahead and changed their number without you knowing.
So if you have noticed that whenever you call someone or send someone a text message and they never call or text you back, then perhaps the person you are trying to get a hold of has gone ahead and changed their phone number, and you will not be able to reach them again.
6. Ask Them on Social Media, If They Changed Their Number
At times, whenever you are trying to reach someone, maybe giving them a call or sending them a text message is not the only way to get a hold of someone you are trying to contact.
In this day and age of technology, you will notice that not only you but also most of your friends and family members have some sort of social media platform that they are active on and use also as much if not more than they use their calling and texting features on their phones.
Because of this fact, you might want to try to consider the idea of trying to contact the person you want to reach via social media.
It does not matter what kind of social media platform you are using in order to get a hold of as long as you do consider that you want to use a social media platform in which they are active on so you do not have to worry about this in the future in the case that they also do not respond to your message there.
Once you have determined what social media platform you want to use to communicate with the person you want to reach, go ahead and shoot them a message and start a conversation with them.
Once this is done, you will want to bring up the topic of then possibly having changed their phone number.
Here is where you can receive first hand news as to whether the person you are trying to reach has really changed their phone number.
If they tell you they have changed their phone number, then this is the reason why they are not calling you back or why they are not responding to your text messages.
Now that you have confirmation that they have changed their phone number, you will want to ask for their new number in order to avoid this kind of situation from happening in the future.
7. Ask Mutual Friends If They Changed Their Number, Then Ask For Their New Number
If you are not able to get a hold of the person you are trying to reach whether it is by sending them a text message or giving them a call or even trying to communicate with them via some sort of social media platform, then you might want to reach out to outside sources in order to verify if the person you are trying to contact has indeed changed their phone number.
What this means is you will want to reach out to a mutual contact that knows both of you and has the phone number of the other person that you are trying to contact. Give them a call or send them a text message instead.
Once you have sent them a message or have gotten a hold of the other mutual contact, you will want to ask them if the person you were trying to contact in the first place has indeed changed their phone number.
Here you will be able to get some sort of confirmation that the other person you are trying to contact has changed their number.
Once the mutual contact has confirmed that the original person you are trying to contact has changed their phone number, you will want to ask them if they have their new number.
It could be the case that they were given the new number from the other person or another mutual contact.
Whatever the reason or scenario might be, once you have the new number saved, you will be able to contact the person you originally wanted to contact in the first place.
What Happens When You Text Someone Who Changed Their Number?
As mentioned before, if you try to contact someone via text message and they have changed their phone numbers, several things can happen.
The first and foremost thing that you will notice will happen is that your text messages sent to them might never get responses back from them.
This is simply because they just are a lot getting the text messages in the first place because you are sending them to the wrong number.
Another thing that can happen, and this is something that solely happens to users that own an iPhone, is that you will notice that the messages you send them via text message or via iMessage will be a color green instead and a color blue that tends to show up when you are both iPhone users.
These two signs are things that you should consider in order to move forward with figuring out whether the person you are trying to contact has indeed changed their phone number and the one you are trying to use is not the right one.
How to Know If a Mobile Number is Still Active?
What are some ways to know if the phone number you are trying to communicate with is still active in the first place? There are several things that you can do in order to verify if this is a number that is still active.
First up, you will want to try to call the phone number and see what happens when you call the phone number. When you call, if someone else answers, then the phone number is active, but it just does not belong to the same person that you thought it still belonged to.
Another thing you can do is check with the service provider that the person used to be part of and check with them if the phone number is still active.
What Happens to a Phone Number Once You Change It?
Whenever someone changes their phone number, you will notice that there are several things that happen. First of all, you will no longer be reached by people who had your old number.
Once this old number does not belong to you, then this phone number can either be trashed or it can be given to someone else for them to use. These are the things that can happen when a phone number is changed.