I purchased a Wi-Fi only iPad. I read somewhere that I can’t iMessage Android users from the Wi-Fi only iPad, but my question is, why can I text Android users from my MacBook and not my Wi-Fi only iPad? The MacBook is only connected to Wi-Fi, so why does it work on there and not my iPad?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPad Pro, iPadOS 16
Do you have an iPhone - or just an iPad? If exchanging messages with Android or non-Apple devices, you’ll need to use SMS/MMS messaging.
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. If you have added a DataSIM and Cellular plan to a WiFi+Cellular model of iPad, the number associated with the SIM card is only used to identify your account for billing purposes. This number is not used for making calls or sending messages.
However, when 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
If you have an iPhone - and both iPad and iPhone are signed-in to iCloud with the same AppleID - to send SMS/MMS messages (green bubbles) from your iPad you must explicitly enable Text Message Forwarding for your iPad (and your Mac) 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
Yes.
If the iPhone is setup correctly, your WiFi Only iPad can exchange SMS/MMS messages with Android and non-Apple devices.
Yes, when your iPad has a WiFi connection and your iPhone also has internet connectivity, provided you have set things as LotusPilot described. The iPhone will act as a relay for the text messages.
Great question.
IT IS possible to text any phone Android (or Apple) phone via the Google messaging app.
YOU WILL NEED a Google phone with a Google account.
**I'm not sure if this works with other Android phones.**
This allows you to use Google's messenger app on your ipad to communicate with your phone messages.
The app can be downloaded to your iPad as a link to your Google account which pulls the info from the Google phone.
Unlike Apple's iMessage platform, Google's messenger app does not store anything in the server or on your iPad. It will need to pull the information from your phone each time you use the app. This is a slight delay from iMessage while but hardly noticable.
Hopefully this somewhat answers you inquiry.
When you replace either your iPhone or your iPad, you are likely to lose the forwarding link between them. That's definitely true when you replace the iPad, because the iPhone will still be trying to forward to the old iPad.
Just recreate the forwarding link on the iPhone the same way and move on.
Thanks very much! I wasn’t sure what was going on. Picked up an IPAD Pro and my wife has an android. Your Text Message forwarding on my iPhone was just what the Dr ordered - appreciate you!
Yeah, I would suggest using their email. Obviously it helps and works better even without a SIM card.
My experience is that sending SMS using iPhone with message forwarding from iPad works randomly. Out of four different phone numbers, I managed to send an SMS from the iPad to only one using this method. The network provider of the delivery phone number confirmed the reported error that no error was found in the SMS reception.
I have my IPhone set up to transfer messages to iPad but still can’t send messages if person on other end has android. As you mentioned I never had a problem before until recently. I need help also.
ipad 9 OS 17.2. I don’t have an option in settings > messages > forward messages…. I can receive some messages from android or non apple phones, but not all of them. Without the forward messages option, what do I do?
Zipideedoodaah wrote:
You are awesome! Thanks for the detailed fixplain. 😁
You are very welcome. I'm delighted that the description found elsewhere in this thread provided the information that you needed.
I have looked through all the categories under messages and I don’t see any the say “Text Message Forwarding”. Could it possibly be called something else? I am on 17.3.1 with a 15 pro. Maybe my carrier (AT&T) doesn’t allow that.
JungleDaddyV wrote:
Thanks very much! I wasn’t sure what was going on. Picked up an IPAD Pro and my wife has an android. Your Text Message forwarding on my iPhone was just what the Dr ordered - appreciate you!
I'm delighted that you found the information that you needed.
LP
Hello LotusPilot, thank you!
I tried your instructions above, and it works with some people, texting from iPad: to Android user along, or to an iPhone user and Android user in the same group text. But it doesn’t work with others!
It *does* work from my iphone..
It’s odd b/c every single time I’ve gotten a replacement apple device (iphone or ipad anyway), I encounter the exact same problem, and it’s a huge hassle to fix. I chat with apple and t-mobile, nobody can resolve it. Then I finally get it to work and it works *great* from then on. Until I get a replacement apple device, then it happens all over again.
Help!
Halldale wrote:
Not sure if when I changed my Apple password was the reason, but now I’m unable to text Android numbers from my WiFi iPad, I do have a iPhone
Fortunately, the instructions on how to set it up again are repeated a couple of times in this thread.
lilycat6 wrote:
what do I need to do to send and receive Text messages from my iPad to an android (Samsung) phone.
The necessary information has been posted repeatedly throughout this thread.
If you read through the responses, you will find everything that you need to know 🙂
How can I text an Android off of a WIFI iPad?
