Over the years a lot of technological advancements have been made with iOS. One of these is that now days, lots of apps that you have on your iPhone and iPad have made their way into the Mac along with the various updates to the MacOS. These include apps such as Notes, Maps, Photos, iBooks, and Messages etc. You are now also able to send text messages from mac.
Now, it is possible to send and receive SMS text messages and iMessages on the Mac without even getting your iPhone out of your bag using the Messages app.
There are basically two different types of text messages that you can receive and send messages on your Mac with. The first type includes iMessages in which the messages are sent through the servers of Apple. The second type involves normal text messages which are routed through your iPhone.
Sending the text messages from your Mac:
If you wish to send sms messages from Mac, then you will have to follow the below mentioned steps for it:
1. First of all, click on the Messages icon present in the dock. The dock is the blue speech bubble. You can also do this search by pressing the cmd key, the space-bar key of the keyboard simultaneously and start to type Messages.
2. You will be needed to sign in using the same Apple ID which is associated with your iPhone.
3. Now, click on the New Message icon. It is the square icon present at the side of the Search field.
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4. Next, point your curser on the To: field and type the phone number, or the email address of the friend with whom you wish to contact to. Here, you should keep in mind that the email address you enter should be the one with which they use their iMessage.
5. Then, press the Enter key.
6. In case, you have synced your Contacts file with your Mac, then you should be able to click on the + sign to add the people from your Contacts.
7. From this, you can easily find out if your friend has an iPhone as their number will gain a blue box in front of it. This means that they will get your texts as an iMessage, which are sent via Apple’s servers. Here you should remember that an iMessage sent in this way might arrive on your friend’s phone with your Apple ID email address as the identifier instead of your phone number. This depends on whether your contact details are set up on their phone or not.
8.If your friend is able to receive iMessages easily, then all you have to do is to just type your message in the field marked iMessage and press return to send it when you are finished.
Once you have logged in into your Apple ID in iMessages on your Mac, then you will be able to easily receive iMessages sent by your iPhone using friends on your Mac. These messages will also appear on your iPhone so the continuity will be maintained.
Sending a text from a Mac if your friend doesn’t have an iPhone:
If your friend has another type of phone their number will not gain a blue box in your contacts field, rather it will get a red box when you add it to the To: field. This will indicate that their phone is not registered with iMessage. If you try to send a text message to such a friend, then you will get an alert message saying that your message could not be sent. However, this definitely does not mean that you cannot text them. All you need to do in such a case is to just set your Mac up such that it can send messages via your iPhone. This is how you will set your Mac up:
1. First of all you need to ensure that you are signed in into your iCloud on your Mac and iPhone using the same Apple ID.
2. To ensure, go to System Preferences and then iCloud option on the Mac and sign in using your Apple ID login details.
Also Read: How to Transfer Photos And Video From iPhone to Mac
3. If you want to check your Apple ID account that you are using on your iPhone go to Settings and then choose the iCloud option. This will help you in checking whether the ids on both the device are same or not.
4. After ensuring it, open the Messages on your Mac.
5. Now, on your iPhone, go to Settings and choose the option Messages on it and then tap on Text Messages forwarding option.
6. Here, you will see all your Mac (or Macs) devices listed with an on and off slider at their sides respectively. To allow your Mac to send and receive text messages, click on the slider at its side and turn the slider to green.
7. After this, you will get to see a message asking you to enter the code shown on your Mac to allow the iPhone text messages to also be sent and received on “Your Mac”. Enter that number in it and wait for the device to be verified.
After this as you add the non-iPhone mobile number of your friend it will also gain a green box to indicate that you are now able to send a text message to it.
Your friend, to whom you have sent the message, will receive a standard text message. This message will be routed via your iPhone, so it will be allocated towards your text message allowance according to your mobile phone contract.
The best thing here also, is that the text message conversation will not just be restricted to your Mac and you will also see the conversation on your iPhone.
Receiving text messages on a Mac:
In order to receive text messages that are sent from a non-iPhone mobile number on your Mac you need to set up your Mac and iPhone both. To do this you need to follow the steps described below.
This method involves logging into your Mac device using your Apple ID in System Preferences, and setting up Text message Forwarding on your iPhone in Settings and then choosing the Messages option.
Final Conclusion:
So, we will assume that hopefully by following the above mention steps you are now able to successfully receive and send messages from your Mac. You can send and receive sms messages from iPhone users as well as non-iPhone users. You will not face any discontinuity as you switch from sending the text messages from Mac to iPhone as the conversation are received in both the devices.