iMessage on Mac doesn't see Android phones

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Rod LoScalzo Author

Level 1

96 points

iMessage on Mac doesn't see Android phones

How come I can not receive a text from an Android phone from my Mac?

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), 8 Gigs Ram

Posted on Jan 30, 2016 7:37 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

sberman

Level 10

272,144 points

Jan 31, 2016 10:37 PM in response to Rod LoScalzo

OK, the answer is that you must use your iPhone as an intermediary to send/receive SMS text messages, and you can then use the iPhone's Handoff (Continuity) capability to connect those SMS messages to/from your Mac.

See the "SMS" section here:

Use Continuity to connect your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

KiltedTim

Level 10

224,142 points

Jan 30, 2016 8:23 AM in response to Rod LoScalzo

Because it's not a phone. In order to get SMS MMS messages on a Mac or iPad, you need an iPhone and you have to enabled Text Message Forwarding in Settings>Messages on the phone and linked it to your Mac and iPad.

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Answer 3

Rod LoScalzo Author

Level 1

96 points

Feb 5, 2016 4:55 AM in response to sberman

This is what solved my problem which came from another thread I posted.

Set up SMS and MMS with Continuity

You need iOS 8 or later on your iOS devices and OS X Yosemite or later on your Mac.

Sign in to iMessage with the same Apple ID on your iPhone, your other iOS devices, and your Mac.

On your iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. Add a check to both your phone number and email address. Then go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding and enable the device or devices that you want to forward messages to.

Look for a code on the Mac, iPad, or iPod touch that you enabled. Then enter this verification code on your iPhone.

Make sure that your email address is checked everywhere.

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Answer 4

Rod LoScalzo Author

Level 1

96 points

Jan 31, 2016 4:42 AM in response to Rudegar

I know you are wrong, because my Mac was doing that with non iOS phones before this last update. I'm 100% sure of it!

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Answer 5

Rod LoScalzo Author

Level 1

96 points

Jan 30, 2016 8:41 AM in response to KiltedTim

This must have been lost with the last update I just did. I remember doing this a while back when I was setting up my devices. This will probably work, I'll have to wait and see. Thank you very much for your help!

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Answer 6

Rudegar

Level 10

179,904 points

Jan 30, 2016 9:39 AM in response to Rod LoScalzo

no ipads or imacs have never been able to send sms's only iPhone can do that

and sms is the means of communication used when sending to non ios devices

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Answer 7

IKillz

Level 1

13 points

Feb 5, 2016 4:51 AM in response to Rudegar

when i had a 5s i could send and receive imessages on my imac. also from android.

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Answer 8

Nov 28, 2016 5:48 AM in response to Rod LoScalzo

Hi, actually the Android Phones runs on the "Google's Android" Operating System and on the other hand, the Apple runs on the IOS and the Apple's Macbooks runs on the Mac Operating System. So, there's a huge difference between these two operating system and both of them doesn't support each other's functionality.

You can check difference between them in this article.

http://itsdiscovery.com/android-vs-ios-which-one-is-better-and-why/

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