How do I silence a contact on Android?

Silencing a contact on Android means preventing notifications from that specific contact from making sounds or vibrating your device. This allows you to mute notifications from particular people without silencing all notifications on your phone.

There are a few key reasons why Android users may want to silence specific contacts:

To avoid distractions from certain people when you need to focus or sleep.

To mute group conversations that are active at inconvenient times.
To control notifications from contacts that message frequently.
To avoid being bothered by contacts you don’t necessarily want to block completely.

Silencing contacts gives you more granular control over your notifications so you can personalize which ones come through at any given time. It’s a useful feature to understand on Android devices.

Locate the Contacts App

To get started with silencing a contact on Android, you first need to locate and open the Contacts or Phone app. The Contacts app comes pre-installed on most Android devices and can be found in the app drawer or on your home screen.

Here are the steps to open the Contacts app on Android:

Swipe up from the bottom of your home screen to access the app drawer.
Scroll and locate the Contacts app. The icon looks like an open book or list of contacts.
Tap the Contacts app icon to launch it.

Alternatively, you can open the Phone app which also provides access to your contacts list. The Phone app has a phone handset icon and is usually placed on the home screen. Once inside the Phone app, tap the Contacts tab at the top to view your contacts list.

If you cannot locate the Contacts or Phone app, try searching your apps by name or just say “Open Contacts” to your Google Assistant.

Open the Contact’s Profile

Once you’ve located the Contacts app, the next step is to open the profile of the specific contact you want to silence. To do this:

Tap on the contact in your contacts list that you want to silence. This will open up their profile page.

For example, if you wanted to silence calls and messages from John Smith, you would tap on his name in your contacts list. Tapping the contact name opens up a page specific to that contact, with details like their phone number, email, address, and any other info you have saved for them.

Opening the profile page for a contact is required before you can silence them, as the silencing options are found in the menu for each contact’s profile.

Tap the Menu Icon

Once you have opened the contact’s profile, look for the 3 vertical dots menu icon in the top right corner of the screen and tap it. The menu icon on Android looks like this:

Tapping the menu icon will open up additional options for that specific contact. The options that appear in this menu allow you to modify settings and preferences for how that contact’s calls and messages are handled on your device.

Select All Calls to Voicemail

One way to silence a contact is by sending all of their calls directly to voicemail. To do this:

Open the Contacts app and tap on the contact you want to silence.
Tap on the menu icon (3 vertical dots) in the upper right corner of the screen.

Select the “All calls to voicemail” option. This can be found in the “More” section of the menu.

Selecting this option will redirect all calls from this contact straight to your voicemail. Your phone won’t ring at all when they call. Instead, the caller will hear your voicemail greeting and be able to leave a message.

According to this WikiHow article, using the call forwarding option is an easy way to send calls to voicemail without fully blocking the contact.

Alternate Method – Block Contact

Another way to silence a contact is to completely block them, which prevents any calls or texts from coming through. To do this:

Open the Phone app and go to Recent calls.
Tap the contact you want to block.

Tap the menu icon in the upper-right corner.
Select Block/report spam.

This will completely block any calls or texts from that contact. You will no longer receive notifications about attempted calls or messages from a blocked number. The Block option blocks calls and texts from the contact across all apps on your Android device ¹.

Unblocking a Contact

If you want to unblock a contact that you previously blocked, you can easily do so through your contacts app. Here are the steps:

[Source: https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/6325463?hl=en]

Open the Phone app on your Android device.

Tap on More options (three vertical dots).
Select Settings.
Tap on Blocked numbers.

You will see a list of all your blocked contacts. Tap on the contact you want to unblock.
Confirm that you want to unblock the contact.

Once you unblock a contact, they will be able to call and text you again. Keep in mind that if you blocked a number, not just a specific contact, you will need to unblock the number itself in the same Blocked numbers menu.

Silencing SMS Messages

You can disable notifications for SMS messages from a specific contact on your Android phone. This allows you to silence that contact’s messages without muting all SMS notifications.

To silence SMS notifications from an individual contact:

Open the Messages app on your phone.

Tap the three-dot menu icon in the top-right corner.
Select “Settings”.
Tap “Notifications”.

Find and select the contact you want to silence.
Toggle off “Notifications” for that contact.

With notifications disabled for that contact, you will no longer receive sound, vibration, or visual banners when they send you SMS messages. However, their messages will still be delivered to your inbox quietly.

To turn notifications back on for the contact, simply return to their settings and toggle notifications on again.

This allows you to selectively mute conversations from contacts without silencing all SMS alerts. It’s great for muting group message spam or silencing conversations temporarily.

Unsilencing a Contact

If you’ve disabled notifications for a contact and want to start receiving them again, fortunately the process is quick and easy on Android. Here are the steps to re-enable notifications for a silenced contact:

1. Open the Contacts app and tap on the contact you want to unsilence.

2. Tap the menu icon in the upper-right corner (the 3 vertical dots).

3. Tap “All calls to voicemail” to disable this setting. The toggle switch should turn off.

4. You will now start receiving notifications from this contact again, including calls, texts, and other alerts.

Alternatively, if you originally blocked the contact, follow these steps instead:

1. Open the Phone app and go to Settings > Blocked numbers.

2. Find the contact and tap on the block icon to unblock them.

3. This will remove them from your blocked list and re-enable notifications.

And that’s it! With just a few taps, you can easily unsilence contacts on Android.

Summary

In summary, there are a few different methods to silence a contact’s calls and messages on Android:

The easiest way is to open the Contacts app, tap on the contact’s profile, click the menu icon in the top right corner, and select “All calls to voicemail”. This will send all calls from that contact directly to voicemail.

Alternatively, you can block the contact completely by tapping “Block” under the menu icon. This will block both calls and texts.

To silence just text notifications, go to Settings > Notifications > Apps, select the Messages app, and turn off notifications.

You can always unblock or unmute a contact by going back into their profile and reversing the settings. Just tap “Unblock” or turn notifications back on.

By using these methods, you can control which contacts can reach you and which ones you want to silence on your Android device.