What to do when he stops texting after you tried harder

Silence is a choice. He saw your messages. He decided not to respond. The length of his silence tells you how little he cares about looking bad by ignoring you. If a guy likes you, your texts get replies within hours, even if he's busy. He makes time.

What you're probably doing is reinterpreting his silence as confusion or bad timing. Maybe he's swamped at work. Maybe he didn't see it. That's your brain protecting you from the simpler answer. He's not interested enough. The effort you put in made it easier for him to show you that, because you removed the burden of him having to initiate.

If you reply at all, send something that does two jobs. First, it has to be short and casual enough that it doesn't feel like you're trying to salvage anything. Second, it has to close the loop on what you started without asking him to do the work of continuing. A simple comment on something he said before, or a light observation that doesn't require a response, works here.

The move isn't clever. It's the opposite. You're removing the pressure, not adding to it. You're showing that you're fine whether he replies or not. And you're not following it up again.

After you send that one calm message, stop. Don't check if he's read it. Don't send anything else. A week gives you real information. If he hasn't texted back in that time, he's not going to unless he needs something from you.

After a week of silence from him, you stop reaching out. That's the boundary. Not because you're playing games, but because continuing to message someone who's ignoring you is just painful. He's already given you the answer. Anything after that first calm message is you asking the same question twice and getting the same silence.