If an iPad has cellular service, can it message non-iOS devices?

No sorry but you are wrong. No iPad has the capability to send/receive SMS or MMS messages as both bobseufert and sberman stated . The iPad only has the capability of messaging through the default iMessage service or through a third party app.

Please feel free to provide some proof to prove us wrong.

From the article iOS: Using Messages this is what it says:

Which Apple products support Messages using SMS and MMS?

To use Messages with SMS and MMS, you need an iPhone.

Which Apple products support Messages using iMessage?

To use Messages with iMessage, you need one of the following Apple products:

• iPhone
• iPad
• iPad Mini
• iPod touch
• Mac with Mac OS X v10.8.x

You need a valid Apple ID to use iMessage on iPad, iPod touch, and Messages for Mac. You need a valid phone number or Apple ID to use iMessage on iPhone.

I apologize I'm wrong. I cant even blame it on drinking tonight 😟. I have a work iPhone, a personal iPhone and an iPad. When using my iPad I never realized that I've only messaged folks with IOS devices. I of course was incorrectly thinking of my iPhone. I hang my head in shame.

I believe you can send SMS to non iPhones, it's green and uses the voice channel. An iMessage to another iPhone or iPad is blue whether you use cellular or wifi. If sent on a iPhone to another iPhone the iMessage uses the data channel If no wifi is available but is still blue.

From the iPhone User Guide.

“Messages"

SMS, MMS, and iMessages

Messages lets you exchange text messages with other SMS and MMS devices using your cellular connection, and with other iOS devices using iMessage.”

Excerpt From: Inc, Apple. “iPhone User Guide For iOS 7.1.” Apple Inc., 2014. iBooks.

This material may be protected by copyright.

Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=709872498

No. Cellular is for data only. No voice or text messages in any iPad. 🙂

Message detects whether recipient has an IOS device or something else. If recipient has an IOS device your message appears blue indicating that it was sent as an iMessage. If it isn't an IOS device your message will appear green and it's sent as a standard SMS message.

Aloha Pete. I believe you are mistaken. When iPhones send SMS text messages they are displayed in a green bubble, iMessages in blue. Can you provide a screen shot with both green and blue messages ? Thank you, Bob.

You are partly correct i think !!! i send Imessages all the time to people that HAVE Ipads or Iphones, in the UK and USA Free,, and yes it appears in a BLUE box/bubble that how you know it is an Imessage,, when it goes GREEN that means it has sent it via a text message,, but you most definatly cant do that to a mobile/cell phone that is not iphone/ipad...

bobseufert (and lindar4s),

Bob, fortunately you included your caveat at the bottom of your last reply indicating the excerpt you are showing is from the iPhone Manual.

Yes, iPhones can certainly send SMS and MMS messages (assuming your cellular carrier supports this - which may require a surcharge on the subscriber's plan). But once again, iPad definitely does not support SMS or MMS.

Yes. I do it all the time with my iPad 2 3G using Message. You can do it whether you're using cellular connection or wifi. It doesn't matter. There is no longer a need to use Text+ etc...

No.

As bobseufert says above, the answer is "no".

The iPad is not a cellular telephone. That is true whether you purchased a cellular iPad or not. Your iPad cannot send or receive SMS or MMS messages.

Wrong as I said I do it all the time. Messages started supporting this ability numerous IOS versions ago.

Thank you for the apology but there is really no need to apologize, we all make mistakes, it's how we learn. The most important thing is you're trying to help people.

Correct.