# Is there an app that provides a whitelist for texting?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-app-that-provides-a-whitelist-for-texting/559506>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 4, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-app-that-provides-a-whitelist-for-texting/559506 "2010-11-04T20:35:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-app-that-provides-a-whitelist-for-texting/559506/1 "2010-11-04T20:35:53Z")

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Say I only wanted to allow the people in my phone list to text me - is there an app for either the Droid or iPhone that does this?

Right now, as I understand it, most phones provide a black list, but I prefer a white list. (Actually, a friend asked me, but as I only have a pay-as-you-go phone, I really don’t know much about it.)

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**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-app-that-provides-a-whitelist-for-texting/559506/2 "2010-11-04T21:53:11Z")

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Just looking in the Android Market, they mostly seem to be blacklist apps. But there is one called _Mr Number Call Block_ that says it can blacklist phone/SMS or whitelist your contacts and block everyone else. It’s free and has 4.5 stars (out of 5) and looks pretty popular with 50-250k downloads.

I’m not sure the same thing could exist for a non-jailbroken iPhone. I don’t think apple would allow it.

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**Author:** ![goldmund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a4c791/32.png) [@goldmund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/goldmund)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-app-that-provides-a-whitelist-for-texting/559506/3 "2010-11-04T23:12:58Z")

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It’s Android, by the way. The Droid is just one of many Android phones. 🆒

Anyway, the [Blacklist](http://www.appbrain.com/app/blacklist/vc.software.blacklistfull) application will do what you want. You can configure both a blacklist and a whitelist. This works for both phone calls and SMS. For calls, you can choose to ignore the call, answer and hang up, or send the caller to voice mail.