#WHICH SMS WORKS ON MAC AND IPHONE MAC#

On macOS, choose Messages > Settings, (or press Command-Comma) click the iMessage button in the toolbar, and select the “Enable messages in iCloud” checkbox. If you want to have your existing messages synced between your devices, on iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings > iCloud > show all > Messages, and enable the “Sync this iPhone” toggle.

#WHICH SMS WORKS ON MAC AND IPHONE MAC#

You can then send and receive SMS messages on your Mac the same way you do iMessages, assuming your iPhone is on and connected to a Wi-Fi or cellular network.

To set up your Mac to send and receive SMS messages, on your iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding and toggle your Mac on in the list. You may also want to make sure the “Start new conversations from” setting matches on all your devices, so your messages appear consistently to their recipients. To do this on macOS, choose Messages > Settings, (or press Command-Comma) click the iMessage button in the toolbar, and make sure any email addresses and phone numbers you want to use are checked. To do this on iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive, and make sure any email addresses and phone numbers you want to use are selected. When you open Messages on your Mac for the first time, you may be asked to sign in again, after which you should be able to use iMessage.Īt this point, you should make sure any email addresses and phone numbers you want to use with iMessage are enabled on all your devices. Thus, if you want to send and receive messages on more than one device, make sure all your devices are signed into the same Apple ID. When you first set up your Apple devices, you were probably asked to sign into your Apple ID, at which point iMessage should’ve been activated automatically. Visually, iMessages are denoted by a blue bubble, whereas SMS messages are denoted by a green bubble. In any conversation, the message text field, the field used to type messages, will include either the word “iMessage” or “text message” as part of its accessibility label to convey this information to VoiceOver users.

When you send a message using the Messages app on any Apple platform, the type of message, either iMessage or SMS, will be determined automatically. If you don’t already have an Apple ID, you can create one for free. In contrast, to use iMessage, all you need is an Apple device signed into an Apple ID. Typically, the ability to send and receive SMS messages is facilitated by a wireless carrier and service plan. Short messaging service (SMS) is the universal text messaging standard supported on nearly all modern phones. In addition to not requiring a dedicated texting plan, iMessage includes a number of additional features, such as increased customizability of messages and end-to-end encryption. IMessage is an Apple service that allows you to exchange messages with other Apple users independent of a wireless carrier.

Messages refers to the built-in app on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS used to send and receive both iMessages and standard SMS text messages, with this guide primarily focused on the version of the app for macOS. In fact, being able to do tasks like calling and texting seamlessly on both my Mac and my iPhone is one of my favorite cross-device integration features. While certain aspects of the Messages app’s interface may initially seem confusing, there are a number of tricks, which I will cover in this guide, which you can use to maximize your efficiency with it. Rather than stop what you’re doing and switch devices to view and respond to the message, you could simply open the Notification Center or Messages app on your Mac, view and respond to the message, and get back to your original task. As part of Apple’s interconnected ecosystem, this capability is also available on macOS.Īn example of how the Messages app could be useful on macOS is if you’re working on your Mac and a text comes in. If you have an iPhone, you’re probably fairly familiar with the Messages app on iOS, using it to send and receive texts, photos, videos, and other files.

Which sms works on mac and iphone