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Why can’t I sent text message on my iPad but I can on my iPhone?

Why can’t I sent text message on my iPad but I can on my iPhone?


iPad Pro, iPadOS 14

Posted on Aug 12, 2022 1:58 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 12, 2022 2:28 PM

If you mean an SMS message, you can't send one from your iPad because it's not a cell phone. It doesn't have the cellular voice circuitry necessary to send an SMS on its own. However, since you have an iPhone, you can connect the two so that you can do Text Message Forwarding.


See here:


How to forward SMS/MMS text messages from your iPhone to your iPad, iPod touch or Mac - Apple Support

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 12, 2022 2:28 PM in response to joellet22

If you mean an SMS message, you can't send one from your iPad because it's not a cell phone. It doesn't have the cellular voice circuitry necessary to send an SMS on its own. However, since you have an iPhone, you can connect the two so that you can do Text Message Forwarding.


See here:


How to forward SMS/MMS text messages from your iPhone to your iPad, iPod touch or Mac - Apple Support

Aug 12, 2022 2:27 PM in response to joellet22

Why?


An iPad, whether a Cellular model or not, is not capable of directly accessing Cellular Voice or SMS/MMS Messaging features. An iPad with either WiFi or Cellular connectivity alone can only access IP-data services. If you have added a DataSIM and Cellular plan to a WiFi+Cellular model of iPad, the number associated with the SIM card is only used to identify your account for billing purposes. This number is not used for making calls or sending messages.


However, when paired with an iPhone, the capabilities of iPad significantly broaden to include access to Cellular Voice and Messaging services of the associated iPhone - relayed to the iPad over WiFi using Apple’s continuity features.


More information about Continuity and the relevant Cellular services can be found here:


Continuity

Use Continuity to connect your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple Watch – Apple Support


SMS/MMS Messaging

How to forward SMS/MMS text messages from your iPhone to your iPad, iPod touch or Mac - Apple Support


WiFi Calling

Make a call with Wi-Fi Calling – Apple Support



The fix…


If you have an iPhone - and both iPad and iPhone are signed-in to iCloud with the same AppleID - to send SMS/MMS messages (green bubbles) from your iPad you must explicitly enable Text Message Forwarding for your iPad on your iPhone...


On your iPhone:

Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding - set to ON - and explicitly enable your iPad from the list of devices.


Also ensure that Messages in iCloud is enabled on both your iPhone and iPad:

Settings > [Your Name / AppleID] > Messages - set to ON



Why can’t I sent text message on my iPad but I can on my iPhone?

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