So for years had no trouble texting people who didn’t have Apple phones from my iPad. Not sure if I screwed it up or how it happened. I know I have screw other things up trying to fix it. And even locked out of my account.

Do you have an iPhone - or just an iPad?

An iPad, whether a Cellular model or not, is not capable of directly accessing Cellular Voice or SMS/MMS Messaging features. An iPad with either WiFi or Cellular connectivity alone can only access IP-data services.

However, If paired with an iPhone, the capabilities of iPad significantly broaden to include access to Cellular Voice and Messaging services of the associated iPhone - relayed to the iPad over WiFi using Apple’s continuity features.

More information about Continuity and the relevant Cellular services can be found here:

Continuity

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

SMS/MMS Messaging

How to forward SMS/MMS text messages from your iPhone to your iPad, iPod touch or Mac - Apple Support

WiFi Calling

Make a call with Wi-Fi Calling – Apple Support

If you have an iPhone - and both iPad and iPhone are signed-in to iCloud with the same AppleID, to send SMS/MMS messages from your iPad you must explicitly enable Text Message Forwarding for your iPad on your iPhone...

On your iPhone:

Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding - set to ON - and explicitly enable your iPad from the list of devices.

Also ensure that Messages in iCloud is enabled on both your iPhone and iPad:

Settings > [Your Name / AppleID] > Messages - set to ON

Fault finding if needed:

If you can't send or receive messages on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

I hope you find this to helpful in resolving the issue.

After spending hours with both the Geek Squad and Apple support; I was sent to my phone service provider (AT&T). I ended up doing what they called “refresh device connection” and BINGO! It worked!

This has happened to me too, since I upgraded to iOS 14.4 last weekend