When you try to call or message someone important (like a family member) without receiving a response, it can be a frustrating and even upsetting occurrence.
You can be forgiven for feeling upset if you see that someone is online or has read your message and has chosen not to reply!
So, if you want to check a person’s current status (or indulge in some innocent light stalking!), there are several methods you can use to check if someone is on their phone.
In this article, we’ll teach you exactly how to tell if someone is on their phone- whether via social media or other effective methods!
How Can You Tell If Someone Is On The Phone?
There are plenty of ways to tell if someone is using their phone.
However, the best method will depend upon the device that the person uses. In the section below, we’ve outlined some of the methods that you can try!
Use The Truecaller App
Truecaller is an app that features Caller ID, flash-messaging, call-recording, and call-blocking.
It also has a Chat and Voice feature for messaging over the internet. To use Truecaller, all you need is a standard cell phone number to register an account with.
There have been more than 500 million downloads of this app on the Google Play Store.
With so many users, there is a fair chance that the person you’re checking on is a Truecaller user as well!
If both of you and the person you are checking have Truecaller installed on your phones, then you just need to hope that they have switched on their Truecaller Availability feature.
This feature on Truecaller will be set as on by default, but can be switched off whenever a user wants.
Therefore, if the person you’re checking has the Truecaller app installed, you will be able to see if they are available on their phone.
All you will need to do is open the app and find their profile. You can typically do this by typing in their cell phone number.
If you see a red phone icon on their phone number, then this person is most likely available and using their phone.
However, if there is a red bell displayed instead, their phone might be on Silent or Do Not Disturb and they might be away from their device.
Check Their Facebook Account
Checking someone’s Facebook account is one of the most straightforward ways to see if they are on their phone.
This is because when you use Facebook on your phone, you will usually be using the Facebook Messenger mobile app as well.
People worldwide use this app for messaging and calls, which makes it a very good tool for checking if someone is on their phone.
The Messenger App will show you someone’s active status. If a person is shown as “Active” on Facebook, there will be a green dot on their profile.
The profile will also have the words “Active Now.”
The green dot means that the person is active on their phone at that time. You will be able to send them a message or give them a call without worrying about being ignored.
When someone has turned off their “Active” status, you won’t see the green dot or the text.
Additionally, if the person you’re checking on uses a privacy option, it will make it more difficult to confirm whether they’re using their phone at that time.
Monitor their WhatsApp
The word “stalk” can make anyone wince and conjure images of shady peeping Toms hiding in bushes, looking through binoculars.
But let’s face it- social media has created a whole population of casual stalkers, so you’re not alone!
Since it was launched in 2009, WhatsApp has become one of the most popular free messaging apps in the world.
Therefore, the app can be extremely helpful if you want to check whether a person is currently on their phone.
Even though the messaging platform is private and secure, there is still an active status checker that other apps don’t have.
(For instance, other messaging platforms such as Signal and iMessage won’t check or show a person’s status.)
It is a pretty simple procedure to check someone’s status on WhatsApp.
You simply have to open up the WhatsApp Messenger App and find the contact you want to check. Then, all you need to do is open your chats with this person.
Once you have opened the chat, you will see the contact’s name- or if they’re not on your contact list, you’ll see their number at the top of your screen.
If they aren’t online or active, you will see the timestamp of the last time they were online.
You can only use this method with the proper privacy settings.
Therefore, you should first have your privacy settings set so people can view your online status or when you were last online.
If you have set your account to private, this will prevent you from seeing the online status of anyone else as well!
The person that you are checking also needs to have their privacy settings configured to “Anyone” or even just “My contacts” to allow you others to see their online status.
What Happens When You Call Someone Who Is On The Phone?
It can be very frustrating when you call someone and can’t get through to talk to them. This can be doubly infuriating in emergency situations!
So, what happens when you try to call someone while they are on another phone call?
In most cases, when you call someone already on a call, they will hear a tone to let them know there is another call waiting.
They can then decide whether they want to put the phone call they’re busy with currently on hold and answer your call, or simply ignore it.
If the person ignores your phone call, the system will then direct you to their Voicemail.
In other cases, the person you’re trying to call may not have a “call waiting” feature. So, what happens if this is the case?
You’ll simply hear that often-annoying busy tone when you try to call them in this scenario.
The two options open to you at this point are either to hang up and try again after waiting a few minutes, or to wait for the person to call you back.
How Will I Know Someone Is Calling Me While I’m On Another Call With An iPhone?
If you have an iPhone, there is a feature included which you can use to notify you when there is a call waiting while you’re already on a call.
This feature is called “Announce Calls”, and was introduced with iOS 10.
If the person calling you isn’t on your contact list, Siri will either state the number or “Unknown Caller” if the person has hidden their phone number.
When you’ve enabled this feature, your ringtone will ring as usual and then go quiet after the call has been announced.
With this feature, you won’t have to look at your phone to know that someone is trying to call you.
Being able to tell who’s calling you without looking at your phone can come in very handy when you can’t get to your phone quickly (such as when you’re driving).
If you have your phone set to “Do Not Disturb” or to vibrate, Siri won’t speak the name or number of the person calling you. Therefore, you won’t have to worry about someone disturbing your call!
In Summary
Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ve been able to learn how to tell if someone is on their phone in a few different ways.
If you want to check if someone is on their phone, or at least check if someone is close to their device, there are certain apps you can use such as Truecaller or WhatsApp.
You can also use their social media accounts (such as Facebook) to check their status.
So, for a bit of light stalking, there are a few different options available to you.
You just have to hope that they haven’t set their accounts to ultra-private settings, which will make working out their true availability a bit more difficult!
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