Messages app does not send or receive SMS on Mac ... but does on my iPhone

MartinR wrote:

razmee209 wrote:

how about text forwarding? Forward text messages from your iPhone to other devices - Apple Support

Interesting. Never heard of that before, and I have been using iPhones for 15+ years!

It would appear that Messages assumes that the iPhone is the primary or controlling sender/receiver. I suppose that made sense years ago. I would have thought that Messages on Mac would work the same.

I'll give it a try.

Not sure but that has always been the case if you wanted to receive SMS/MMS on your mac or ipad, not needed for Apple imessage.

MartinR wrote:

It would appear that Messages assumes that the iPhone is the primary or controlling sender/receiver. I suppose that made sense years ago. I would have thought that Messages on Mac would work the same.

The iPhone is the only device that can send and receive SMS. Not iPad. Not Mac.

All other devices use an iPhone as a relay, via Continuity.

• Set up iCloud for Messages on all your devices - Apple Support
• Forward text messages from your iPhone to other devices - Apple Support

MartinR wrote:

I can send and receive both iMessage and SMS messages on my iPhone and see them all. But on my iMac I can only send/receive iMessage messages. The iMac does not "see" any SMS messages whatsoever.

I am using an iPhone 16 Pro (iOS 18.6.2) ... and an iMac (macOS 12.7.6, Messages 14.0). Both devices use (share) the exact same Contacts (Contacts are sync'd between the iMac and the iPhone, so they are identical.)

I checked Settings on both devices. On the iPhone there is an option to enable iMessage (which has always been enabled) and an option to enable "Send As Text Message" which is and has always been disabled. On the iMac there are no comparable settings for Messages.

How do I enable SMS send/recieve in Messages on my iMac?

how about text forwarding? Forward text messages from your iPhone to other devices - Apple Support

MartinR wrote:

It would appear that Messages assumes that the iPhone is the primary or controlling sender/receiver. I suppose that made sense years ago. I would have thought that Messages on Mac would work the same.

On an iPhone, Messages is a multi-purpose messaging app. It handles SMS, RCS and iMessages. Macs, on the other hand, have no ability to receive SMS messages as they have no cellular abilities. So yes, an iPhone is the primary sender/receiver for SMS messages.

In theory, I think, Messages on a Mac could receive RCS messages as they, like iMessages, are sent over data but, as far as I know, they currently don't.

FYI, "Sent as Text Message" doesn't turn SMS on or off. What it does if enabled is, in the event your phone tries to send an iMessage and it fails, the phone will try to send it again as an SMS/RCS message. If you turn it off, the iMessage will simply fail.

MartinR wrote:

Ahh ... now I understand. I've been scratching my head for months trying to figure out why only certain conversations appeared in Messages on my Mac. Of course ... they're all "blue"... which should have been the giveaway. SMS' cellular dependency was "out of sight, out of mind" all that time.

You are not the first person, nor will you be the last, who is puzzled by this.

Glad it helped!