Q: How do I send sms text messages from iPad Air 2

Hi

You can't send SMS Text messages from ipads only from

Mobile phones they are run by your network provider .

Cheers

Brian uk

Yes you can send SMS messages with your iPad as long as you are running iOS 8.1 on the phone and the iPad. This is one of the features of continuity. See the section about SMS in this article. You have to be signed into iCloud on both devices and you have to have your email address selected in Settings>Messages>Send and Receive at>You can reached by iMessage at.

Use Continuity to connect your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac - Apple Support

Use Continuity to connect your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac - Apple Support

this worked for me.......scroll down to

To use Continuity for SMS and MMS with your iPhone and your Mac, iPad or iPod touch

Your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch need to use iOS 8.1, and your Mac needs to use OS X Yosemite.

1. Sign in to iMessage on your iPhone, your other iOS devices, and your Mac using the same Apple ID.
2. On your iPhone: Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You Can Be Reached By, and add a check to both your phone number and email address. Then, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding, and enable the device(s) you would like to forward messages to.
3. Your Mac, iPad, or iPod touch will display a code. Enter this code on your iPhone to verify the SMS feature.

I did all of this but I still can't send messages to non-iOS from the iPad 3 or Mac Yosemite. Not sure if this is important but there is green imessage icon anywhere on the Mac, only the blue message icon. I checked the iCloud settings on the Mac; there is no message icon of any kind in the iCloud settings. I'm positive that I didn't delete it. On the iPhone it does indicate that it is text message forwarding to two devices and lists the iPad and the Mac.

That should  read that there is no green iMessage icon anywhere on the Mac so I couldn't sign into iMessage on the Mac per papa100's post.