I am not able to send or receive messages on my iPad from non-iPhone phones. I can, however, message with no problem on my iPad. Could anyone help me with this? I swear I used to have no problem doing this!
iPhone 6, iOS 9.1, AT&T carrier
The only way to send SMS/MMS messages form an iPad is to pair it with an iPhone with cellular service and an SMS messaging plan using iOS continuity - Use Continuity to connect your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch - Apple Support If that used to work but is not now, check the continuity settings on the iPhone as detailed in that URL.
By itself, an iPad cannot connect to any cellular service providers voice network, and SMS/MMS are sent using the cellular voice network, not the cellular data (i.e. internet) network. So by itself, an iPad is inherently limited to solely internet based messaging like Apple's iMessage service (or Skype, or Google Hangouts, etc).
With iOS (and OS X) continuity, Apple non-cellular telephone devices can share an iPhones SMS/MMS capabilities to send and receive SMS texts through the iPhone.
iPad cannot sent messages to non iPhones
