How to send and receive text messages on your Mac

How to send and receive text messages on your Mac

Over the years lots of apps you find on the iPhone and iPad have made it over to the Mac with the various updates to the MacOS. These have included Notes, Maps, Photos, iBooks, and Messages. Using the Messages app on the Mac it is possible to send and receive SMS text messages and iMessages without even getting your iPhone out of your bag. There are actually two different types of messages you can send and receive on your Mac. iMessages are sent via Apples servers, and normal text messages are routed via your iPhone. Once you have logged into your Apple ID in Messages on your Mac you will be able to receive iMessages sent by your iPhone using friends on your Mac. The messages will also appear on your iPhone so there will be continuity. If your friend has another type of phone their number may gain a red box when you add it to the To: field. This indicates that their phone is not registered with iMessage. If you try and send a text message you will see an alert saying that Your message could not be sent. However, that doesnt mean that you cant text them, you just need to set your Mac up so it can send messages via your iPhone. Now when you add your friends non-iPhone mobile number it will gain a green box to indicate that you are sending a text message. Your friend will receive a standard text message, which will have been routed via your iPhone, so it will be allocated towards your text message allowance according to your mobile phone contract. The best thing is that the text message conversation wont be restricted to your Mac, you will also see it on your iPhone. In order to receive text messages (sent from a non-iPhone) on a Mac you need to set up your Mac and iPhone following the steps described above. This involves logging into your Mac with your Apple ID in System Preferences, and setting up Text message Forwarding on your iPhone in Settings > Messages. For more information about how to use the Messaging app on the iPhone read: this includes details about using various Messaging features such as adding Emoji, many of these features also apply to the Mac version of Messages.