Message on iPhone but not on MAC

Question

Level 1

17 points

Message on iPhone but not on MAC

I have a MACBook Pro and and iPhone 4s both with the app messages. Generally a message appears on both and I can send from either. Yet the other day I was given a phone number and tried to send a message via my MAC but it was unable. Yet I successfully sent a message to this person via my iPhone and he responded. The bubble on my message was green not blue, so I assume my message did not go via iMessage. Is there a way how I can make his name appear in my MACs messages so I can send him future messages from my MAC? All I have is his phone number.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Sep 13, 2013 8:56 AM

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Answer 1

markwmsn

Level 6

14,987 points

Sep 13, 2013 1:16 PM in response to lburech

If the bubble was green, the message must have gone by SMS. Macs have no direct SMS capability.

That other person either does not have an Apple iPhone, has chosen not to register the phone number with iMessage, or did not have an internet connection active at the time of your experiments.

There are services that claim to allow non-SMS devices to send SMS messages. I've never tried any of them, so I don't know how well (or even if) any of them might work.

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Answer 2

lburech Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 13, 2013 3:34 PM in response to markwmsn

Too bad the iPhone two generations back is superior to the MAC's Mountain Lion. Thanks for telling me the MAC just can't send SMS while the iPhone 4s can.

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Answer 3

Sep 13, 2013 3:40 PM in response to lburech

Ummm...

SMS is a proprietary protocol that is phone only. Nothing that can be done about that on the Mac.

Fortunately there are iMessages which work on both the Mac and on iOS; that's an Apple-developed protocol.

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Answer 4

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Sep 13, 2013 3:41 PM in response to lburech

Your Mac has no cellular connection, how can it use a service that it does not have?

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