How do I connect my iPhone with my Macbook so I can message on the laptop?

Hi,

The Messages up in Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.2 and upwards) and Mavericks (all versions at time of writing) can use the iMessages Account to send iMessages to other iPhone Numbers and Apple IDs registered with iMessages.

The iPhone can be set up with an Apple ID as well as the iPhone number in the Settings > Messages section.

It can also have the SMS and MMS settings on (One tends to be for Sending and the other for Receiving)

The action on Send seems to be if the iPhone is not on WiFi it will send an SMS to the other end.

For Receiving it seems the iMessages Server seems able to tell and "reroute" it as SMS.

The Mac version then tends to get the same Messages as iMessages.

What will not happen is the SMS the iPhone receives are not synced to the Mac version, only the iMessages are synced.

If you happen to live in the United States you can use an AIM Screen Name in Messages (or iChat) to Send SMS to "Buddies".

I emphasize Buddies as you add the phone Number as if it were a Screen Name with adding a +1 in front (As in +1234567890)

The Buddy has to be on one of these carriers.

They do not have to be on an iPhone either in this case.

You can actually connect this way from anywhere in the world but it is more likely to be useful if you are in the same country as the carriers.

The +1 is needed even thoough AIM have never rolled this out to anywhere else in the world.

You may already have an AIM valid Screen Name in the form of your Apple ID.

Those Apple IDs ending @mac.com and the iCloud issued @me.com and @icloud.com are all valid AIM Screen Names under an agreement Apple Made with AIM around 11 years ago when iChat first came out as as an AIM client.

The only proviso is that your Apple Password is kept to the current AIM limit or below.

For years this has been 16 characters and I have only seen one suggestion it has changed to more.

Trial, lapsed and (Originally) paid For @Mac.com accounts work.

Trial accounts always worked as AIM screen names after the trial Ended.

This allowed Apple if keep an @mac.com registration page going for "iChat Names" during the MobileMe era.

This was not the same with MobileMe issued @me.com names.

When the trial Ended or if the account lapsed then the iChat/AIM bit also stopped.

Obviously some people linked their @mac.com to their @me.com ID when the .Mac service changed to MobileMe.

Similar has happened at the MobileMe to iCloud change.

You had to have specifically changed your @me.com from MobileMe to an iCloud related one fro it to continue.

Later iCloud seems to have issued @icloud.com IDs

As each variant works as a separate AIM Screen Name you may have 3 AIM Screen Names if you started with .Mac.

7:47 pm Sunday; February 16, 2014

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad