iMessaging (need to make my wife happy)

[Mike Goetzke]

My wife got a new iPhone 6S to replace her 5S. She has a wifi iPad. She writes many group text messages on the iPad. My one daughter has an Android phone. My wife says before getting her new phone she could group message including my daughter with the Android but she can't with the new phone. If you put this daughters name in the To: box the text is red and says "xxx-xxx-xxxx is not registered with iMessage."

I have basically the same setup as my wife (iPhone and wifi iPad) and I noticed since day one I could never have a non-Apple phone owner on my message list when iMessaging.

Any Apple smart people out there that could shed some light on this issue?



Thanks,

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

I think you're right. I've never been able to put an non-apple device in iMessage.

Mike

[Jebediah Eckert]

It has always worked no problem for me. If somebody in group doesn't have iMessage the whole message is then green instead of blue. Try going to setting then messages. You will see Send as SMS. I think that needs to be on. Try that. I'm no expert but I vaguely remember that somewhere. Not sure what SMS stands for but you will see an explanation below on the phone and it has to do with iMessage not available which I think is also for non iMessage users. Doesn't hurt to try. Also MMS and Group messaging has to be turned on. That's right below the SMS choice.

[Scott Shepherd]

On the iPhone, you can accept SMS and that works across platforms. On the iPad, I don't see that setting, it's only iMessage, which isn't going to work across platforms. I thought for sure that the iPad had SMS capability, but I sure can't find it. It's not in the same place it is on the phones, so I'm guessing it's not there and can't be done.

There are third party apps that will allow her to do it, but I'm not aware of any way to do it on an iPad through the iMessage system.

[Mike Goetzke]

On the iPhone, you can accept SMS and that works across platforms. On the iPad, I don't see that setting, it's only iMessage, which isn't going to work across platforms. I thought for sure that the iPad had SMS capability, but I sure can't find it. It's not in the same place it is on the phones, so I'm guessing it's not there and can't be done.

There are third party apps that will allow her to do it, but I'm not aware of any way to do it on an iPad through the iMessage system.

I messed around with this a little last night and from her phone (that has SMS) she can group message with an Android phone in the list but not the wifi iPad. Although, her iPad messaging had enough history where I could see successfully sent/received text messages to/from my daughter with the Android.

I also played around with my phone and iPad and actually was able to get success sending text to the Android from my iPad. I thought it was associated with the contact info so I sent the contact to my wife's phone - no luck. Then I found my iPad could no longer deliver a text to the Android....frustrating.

I did see the apps - maybe that is the solution.

Thanks,

Mike

[Brian Tymchak]

...Not sure what SMS stands for ...

Stands for Short Message Service (160 chars max). It uses (or originally used) the signaling path instead of the radio path that carries typical voice/data.

Got it's real start with text and push-to-talk services. Now it's being used for a whole bunch of stuff.

And that's about all I remember about it from my telephony days...

[Charles Taylor]

I thought for sure that the iPad had SMS capability, but I sure can't find it.

That might be true for iPads that have cellular radios, but I don't think so for wifi-only devices (like mine).

[Prashun Patel]

imessage is an apple thing an uses the apple id to distribute to your other devices and even over wifi. I had the same prob when I was on Droid. Imessage stuff comes in blue, all others as green.

[Mike Goetzke]

imessage is an apple thing an uses the apple id to distribute to your other devices and even over wifi. I had the same prob when I was on Droid. Imessage stuff comes in blue, all others as green.

I used this hint in a google search and found this:

iMessage works only with other iDevice owners. If you have an iPhone and you use the Messages app to contact an Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone user, iOS recognizes there's no iMessage at the other end and switches (downshifts?) into SMS mode. Your indication that has happened? Green word bubbles instead of blue


...so since the iPad my wife has is only WiFi it indeed should not be able to send a message to a non-iDevice. Little confused because like I said above looks like there are some messages that went through OK from her iPad. Other thing bad is that if a single recipient does not have an iDevice I have found the message sent from the WiFi only iPad doesn't get sent to anyone.


Thanks,

Mike

[Scott Shepherd]

That might be true for iPads that have cellular radios, but I don't think so for wifi-only devices (like mine).

Does your wifi only iPad have that option to use SMS for texting? I'm just curious. Mine is cellular too, but even with that, I don't see the option for SMS, however, on my phone, in the same setting area, I see the SMS option. I'd be interested to know if different ones have different options available.

[Mike Goetzke]

Does your wifi only iPad have that option to use SMS for texting? I'm just curious. Mine is cellular too, but even with that, I don't see the option for SMS, however, on my phone, in the same setting area, I see the SMS option. I'd be interested to know if different ones have different options available.

No the wifi only iPad does not have SMS option.

[Charles Taylor]

Does your wifi only iPad have that option to use SMS for texting?


Nope. On my iPad (iOS 9.0.2), I don't see that option, or any of the other SMS-related options that I see on my phone.

[roger wiegand]

My desktop mac sends and receives SMS messages from the Messages app by linking through my iPhone. I set it up by connecting through iCloud where there was an option to use SMS through my phone number. Our iPad has cellular service so worked via that connection. I'd be surprised if the iPad messages app can't do a similar pass through as the Mac does, but I can't readily check that.

Apple seems to say you can do it: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204065