The phone number "is not registered with iMessage"

Had exactly the same issue recently, ways to solve it:

- sign out from iMessage on computer (messages => preferences => accounts => sign out)

- sign out from iMessage on phone (settings => messages => toggle "iMessage" off

- sign in to iMessage with applID on phone (settings => messages => toggle iMessage on, click on "use appleID for iMessage)

- sign in to iMessage on computer (messages => preferences => accounts => sign in)

- close and reopen messages on computer, works

With IOS 11, each device must be linked to your iPhone.

Go to your iPhone Settings > Messages > Send & Receive.

Make sure your iPhone number is checked. Go back one step in messages

"Text Message Forwarding" should now appear if it dEid not before.

Select Text Message Forwarding. There is a list of all your other iPad(s) and iMac.

Slide button over for one of your other hardware items (iPad or iMac).

A message will appear on your other device with a numerical code. Enter that into the query box on your iPhone.

Press "Allow" on the iPhone. This turns on the iPad or other device.

I have 3 iPads and an iMac. So I had to do this for each device.

Amazing! After trying to find an answer on the web, I spent about 20 minutes with Apple support on this. They put me on hold, came bock, took off again. Made sure forwarding was on. Finally gave up, said sorry, call Verizon or whatever. The number I was having trouble with is on Cricket. And it was listed as home.

I switched it to "Mobile" and suddenly it works. Don't understand why Apple would this. It's too easy to enter a number and forget to specify which.

Thanks so much for your post. I'm dealing with a contractor who doesn't do email except through his wife's computer, awkward, and I send some fairly long texts, which I don't want to have to do on the phone all the time.

As an add-on to JeffcNick's good point, if you have multiple devices, you may need to turn on Message-Sharing in your iPhone for ALL of them. For example, I had this problem on my MBP (always worked then suddenly stopped) and Message-Sharing was already activated on my iPhone. It was off however for my work and personal iPads. As soon as I switched them back on for the iPads, hey presto i can message Androids from my MBP again.

This is clearly a bug and Apple need to fix it.

I have had this problem multiple times. One fix I just figured out today is to make sure that the phone number you have for your contact is listed as a mobile number in Contacts on your Mac/IPad, other device. I had some entry mistakes that my iPhone doesn’t seem to notice that my Mac did. Once I had entered the number correctly as a mobile number, then I had no problem sending them texts via iMessage.

Thanks, even now (2018) this worked and solved my issue of texting from my iMac and iPad. I simply followed the same procedure "In iPhone settings, open iMessage. Select Text Message Forwarding. You must be on the same wi-fi network."

Wahoo!

What I did was this and it worked:

On my iphone, not computer:

settings/messages/forwarding/allow blah blah

It worked!

(1) Ensure your iPhone is on the same WiFi network as your computer first of all.

(2) On your iPhone:

(a) Go to "Settings";

(b) Go to "Messages".

(c) Next, go to "Text Message Forwarding". Your computer or other device should be shown in the list- just click it to turn the switch green.

(d) Have fun texting anyone from your computer via iMessages.

That worked -- yes do go to your computer and turn on iMessage then Preferences and log into your Apple ID. Here's how to perform these 2 steps to get your iMessage able to send & receive from non-iPhone numbers/accounts.

From iMessage>Preference> Log into your Apple ID. This will likely take you to a browser window. From there log in with your Apple ID. Then once you're logged on at My Apple ID>go to Phone Numbers then select from Daytime, Evening or Mobile. Key in your Mobile number (include the 1 then area code).

Now Step 2 -- You also need to go to your iphone itself. Go to Settings>Messages ("Messages" is likely best located if you scroll down on your phone below Mail, Contacts, Calendars; below Notes, below Reminders, below Phone).

When you see Messages then> iMessage and make sure it's on by sliding the tab so that you see green, indicating that iMessage is ALSO turned ON on your iPhone.

Glad it worked, Nancy. What I found mystifying was how it got toggled off in my phone in the first place. But I realized after I had posted the above (in which I mentioned that I had just updated my version of Sierra on my Mac) that I had also updated the iOS on my phone to 10.2.1. Moral: after an update or upgrade, maybe one should look at all one's settings in any way connected with icloud, mail, etc., on all devices.

For me to get to the delete person from Chat I had to double click on their name in Messages to get to them in Contacts, then click on the phone number in Contacts to try and send a text, then do the delete from conversation. This is not an exact process, there is some alchemy and unknown steps that may have worked in getting it to work. Still in the dropdown in Messages it says phone number - iMessage but it actually sends as SMS text. All this started for me after I get a random alert I need to change my iCloud password, then the whole secret key thing, 2-step verification, etc. Took over an hour of my work day for absolutely no reason.

if yo add them to your mac address contacts and fill you witch emall severice they use IE Google AIM IT Seem to work. you must be log in and have set up you imesages service. I works with hangout too.

I have same prob, and Apple said we'd no longer have this problem with YOSEMITE, that you'd be able to message anyone even those without macs or iphones! Amazing it's still a prob. I wonder if they know or anyone else how to fix? So frustrating!

As I said in my previous post, you won't find it in 'iphone'. You'll find it in Settings/Phone.

Curiouusly enough, it has got toggled off again in my phone, and I am having difficulties toggling it back on. But that seems to be another story...

Nancy and Chris,

I am having the same problem. I haven't been able to send text messages from my 2010 MacBook Pro now to non-Apple device users for almost a full week now. I finally have the time to troubleshoot this, but my iPhone 5 doesn't seem to have 'text message forwarding' on my iPhone message settings. I have the latest iOS running on my phone (I think 10.2 I believe)? So I'm not sure what the issue is.