whenever I send a text message from my MacBook Air to a cell phone that is not an apple product, the message does not go through. However it works from my phone. Is there a way I can set this up on my computer?

Hi Ycd1933,

Apple devices use the iMessage protocol by default in the Messages app. Your sent messages will appear blue when you're using iMessage. Non-Apple devices can't use iMessage.

iPhones in particular support a second protocol, known as SMS/MMS. This protocol is less secure and doesn't support as many features as iMessage. When you're using SMS/MMS, your sent messages will appear green. Every mobile phone (including iPhone) can use SMS/MMS, but other devices, such as your Mac, can't use it natively.

If you want to use SMS/MMS on your Mac to communicate with non-iPhone users, you can instruct your iPhone to relay SMS/MMS messages to and from your Mac. To set this up:

On your iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app, and select Messages.
2. Tap Send & Receive. Make sure that you're signed in with your Apple ID. Then go back.
3. Make sure that Send as SMS is enabled.
4. If you want to be able to send and receive photos and other media when texting non-iPhone users, make sure that MMS Messaging is enabled.
5. Tap Text Message Forwarding.
6. Enable the switch for each device that you want to send and receive SMS/MMS messages from.

On your Mac:

1. Open the Messages app.
2. At the top of the screen, select Messages -> Preferences.
3. Select the iMessage tab.
4. Make sure you're signed in with the same Apple ID.

Once this is done, any future SMS/MMS messages that you receive on your iPhone will also be sent to your Mac. You can also send messages to non-iPhone users from your Mac.

EDIT: Added the MMS step.

I have this same issue. Only since the advent of Mojave and beyond. Anytime I try to send a text from any of my computers using 'messages' app that is specifically to a NON-APPLE device, the app crashes and I have to resort to using my iphone to send.

Its been this way for a long time. No one at apple can explain it. I've had an open ticket for almost the entire year of 2021. Crickets from apple.

I was having this same issue on my ipad; receiving and sending android texts had been working, but then suddenly stopped. I researched everything, all the threads, etc. It came down to the option of Messages/Text Message Forwarding on my iphone—that option was missing all of a sudden. According to everything I had read, it should have been there, but it disappeared completely.

I tried following all the steps, turning my iphone and ipad off and on, making sure they were both signed into the same Apple ID, etc. The only thing that finally fixed it was to go to Messages/Send & Receive—on my iPad—and remove my phone number from the “you can only receiving iMessages to and reply from” list of devices. I got out of that screen and then right back into it and added my phone number back as an account I could make and receiving iMessages to and from.

After I did that, I started getting the messages that I could start using my phone number on my ipad, etc, and that added back the option—on my iphone—of text message forwarding (Messages/Text Message Forwarding). Once I did that and added my ipad back in, everything works fine now. Might try that on your Mac and see if that makes any difference. I think the Text Message Forwarding thing is what’s causing the problem, and for some people, that option is disappearing from their iPhones! So weird.

Doesn't work...

Can't send sms messages from my MacBook, and won't sync with the iPhone for the sms.

iMessages ok on both

On your phone, go to settings > messages > text message forwarding then turn on the computer you want to send/receive text messages from.