LG Wireless Phone

Can verizon wireless phones tell when a cell phones off?

my friend has a Verizon wireless cell phone and she said that when she texts someone it lets her know that the persons phone is off or on. is that true?

Public Comments

1. That's not true. She is full of sh*t. On verizon the arrows and check marks when sending a message do tell you whether the person is on verizon or not, but the only way to see if someones phone is off is to call them and if it goes straight to voicemail there phone is off. Either that or they ignored your call.
2. I've had Verizon for 10 years, and this is news to me because it's not true.
3. You can request a delivery report of an SMS message. Non-deliver does not mean that the phone is off, necessarily, it could also mean that the phone is not available due to being out of range of a network or being on a phone call, but yes, with some SMS clients you can tell when a message is delivered, and if it's not delivered within a minute or two, and you know that the person is "in range" of a cell tower, you can assume the phone is off, however that is just an assumption. It depends on the SMS client, and also on the receiving system's ability to actually return the delivery report. A good example is the Handcent SMS application available on any of the Android based phones. Most "feature phone" sms clients do not/can not request a delivery report. It's also possible to request a "read" report that will report back to the sender when the recipient actually views the message. Again, this is dependent on the carrier(s) involved.
4. No. That is definitely bullshit lol NO carrier can tell you a phone is off unless you call it, and it goes straight to voicemail. A text message to a phone WITHOUT text message ability(house phone) will let you know it isn't compatible. but..whatever she just said is a lie.
5. actually it does in a way. if you go to your sent box and there is an arrow next to the message it means that the persons phone is off or they dont have a verizon phone. if there is a check mark by the message it means that the person has verizon and their phone is on.
6. Uh no. The only way someone could GUESS that a phone is off if you called someone else and it went immediately to voicemail. Usually, even if a person is on another call it will still ring to the caller and then eventually go to voicemail 30 seconds later. If you call and vm answers, they prob have it off.