You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
📢 Newsroom Update
The new iPad mini is available today. Learn more >
The new iPad mini is available today. Learn more >
How do I send a blue iMessage instead of a green text message from my iPad? When I try to send a message to some of my contacts from my iPad, it tries in green and comes back (!) Not delivered. I do not have this problem on my iPhone.
iPad Air, iOS 12
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
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 [new] 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
Now that you understand the difference between “blue” and “green” message bubbles - and the messaging service to which they relate - it should be obvious that your iPad will intelligently use the message service that is common to both you (the sender) and the person with whom you are attempting to exchange messages (the receiver). If both sender and receiver have an Apple device - and have enabled iMessage - your device will use the iMessage service (blue bubbles). If one or other do not use iMessage, assuming that your iPad is paired with an iPhone, your iPad will attempt to send an SMS message (green bubbles).
Apple iMessage is proprietary - and at present limits use of iMessage to users of Apple devices. Android users cannot directly exchange messages via iMessage - but must rely upon SMS/MMS services.
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
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 [new] 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
Now that you understand the difference between “blue” and “green” message bubbles - and the messaging service to which they relate - it should be obvious that your iPad will intelligently use the message service that is common to both you (the sender) and the person with whom you are attempting to exchange messages (the receiver). If both sender and receiver have an Apple device - and have enabled iMessage - your device will use the iMessage service (blue bubbles). If one or other do not use iMessage, assuming that your iPad is paired with an iPhone, your iPad will attempt to send an SMS message (green bubbles).
Apple iMessage is proprietary - and at present limits use of iMessage to users of Apple devices. Android users cannot directly exchange messages via iMessage - but must rely upon SMS/MMS services.
A green message actually means that the person is using an android phone or that person doesn't have iMessage. You can do that on your phone because it has a sim so it can send it to virtually anyone with a sim. A blue message is actually normal it means the person has iMessage, you can check whether the person has iMessage in contacts, if a contact shows the message option as clickable and once you navigate to the messages app their name is blue not red, that means they have iMessage and you can send a message to them from your iPad.
Hope this helps.
How do I send a blue iMessage instead of a green text message from my iPad?
