imessage - my sister is a former apple owner
October 14, 2014 8:39 AM Subscribe
My sister had an iphone and now has an Android.
I have an iphone and an ipad.
I can send her a message from my phone. The message is green.
Messages on the ipad are blue and don't go through. Her other apple friends can text her.
I prefer to type on my ipad. That used to work, but now she has a new phone and those messages don't go through. She says some of her friends had this same problem but it went away.
I can send blue messages to my spouse and it works fine.
I've deleted the message thread on the ipad and turned imessage on and off and created a new contact for her. I don't mind doing all of that again along with any other suggestions you might have?
I prefer to type on my ipad. That used to work, but now she has a new phone and those messages don't go through. She says some of her friends had this same problem but it went away.
I can send blue messages to my spouse and it works fine.
I've deleted the message thread on the ipad and turned imessage on and off and created a new contact for her. I don't mind doing all of that again along with any other suggestions you might have?
Your ipad is sending from your Apple account, an email ID.
Her android phone can't receive messages from your Apple account because it only sends imessages, not sms/mms texts. There's probably some app she can get but it'd be a pain in the ass.
She can get messages from your phone because your phone can send messages from both the Apple account and the phone number.
If you really want to be able to use your ipad to chat with your sister, why not give google hangouts a try?
posted by phunniemee at 8:49 AM on October 14, 2014
Her android phone can't receive messages from your Apple account because it only sends imessages, not sms/mms texts. There's probably some app she can get but it'd be a pain in the ass.
She can get messages from your phone because your phone can send messages from both the Apple account and the phone number.
If you really want to be able to use your ipad to chat with your sister, why not give google hangouts a try?
posted by phunniemee at 8:49 AM on October 14, 2014
Or course not, she left the free iCloud services from Apple and can only be texted via the SMS network. Your iPad is not connected to the SMS network (it not a cellphone...).
posted by Mac-Expert at 8:51 AM on October 14, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by Mac-Expert at 8:51 AM on October 14, 2014 [5 favorites]
I think the other answers clarify the problem. But I would recommend either Google Hangout (aka Google Talk aka Gchat) or an app called Whatsapp, which is very good for instant text messaging. She can download in the Google Play store, you download in the Apple store or iTunes or whatever.
posted by peachpie at 8:53 AM on October 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by peachpie at 8:53 AM on October 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
My general advice is to adopt true cross-platform apps for these kind of communications. I think the de facto standard in this area now is whatsapp
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:53 AM on October 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:53 AM on October 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
Last time I checked, Whatsapp doesn't work on tablets since they don't have a phone number.
posted by dcjd at 9:03 AM on October 14, 2014
posted by dcjd at 9:03 AM on October 14, 2014
Response by poster: My ipad has an at&t account and I can use 4g service whenever. The device does have a phone #.
And at&t tells me I can send all the texts I want. Does that make a difference?
posted by egk at 9:21 AM on October 14, 2014
And at&t tells me I can send all the texts I want. Does that make a difference?
posted by egk at 9:21 AM on October 14, 2014
And at&t tells me I can send all the texts I want.
From your phone, right? Not your ipad, almost certainly.
ipads are assigned a phone number, but it's not a phone number in the sense that your phone has a phone number. No one can call you up on your ipad to chat. The at&t account you have for your ipad is in all likelihood a data plan only, which means you can send data messages (like imessages) only, not sms which would send over a cellular network.
posted by phunniemee at 9:25 AM on October 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
From your phone, right? Not your ipad, almost certainly.
ipads are assigned a phone number, but it's not a phone number in the sense that your phone has a phone number. No one can call you up on your ipad to chat. The at&t account you have for your ipad is in all likelihood a data plan only, which means you can send data messages (like imessages) only, not sms which would send over a cellular network.
posted by phunniemee at 9:25 AM on October 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
You can send SMS to any phone using wifi, you just need to find their phone's email address. You then just type their email address in the to field and all should work. Not sure on an ipad, you might be able to do this straight from imessage, which will work fine for you, or you might have to use an email client, which will probably not.
See here to find their email address.
posted by zug at 9:39 AM on October 14, 2014
See here to find their email address.
posted by zug at 9:39 AM on October 14, 2014
An iPad isn't a phone, that's the problem, not her Android phone. I googled it and it seems you could download a text messaging app like Textie or TextFree. But I think Google Hangouts or Skype may be easiest.
posted by peachpie at 9:39 AM on October 14, 2014
posted by peachpie at 9:39 AM on October 14, 2014
My only word of warning re: Google Hangouts. On the Android side of things Google Hangouts will also want to be your SMS app (don't know if this will be true on iOS, probably not). In theory that's supposed to be "seamless" but my experience has been so bad with that I dumped it completely. What happened with me is I tried sending an SMS text to someone, and instead of sending a text it defaulted to me trying to setup a google hangout with this person, who did not have Google Hangouts. So it sent him an email inviting him to Google+. Not only did I not get a reasonably important text through, it was embarassing to spam this person. So, that happened.
Skype would work. Other possibilities: kik messenger, viber. Viber requires a phone number for the account, but not on every device you run it on.
posted by mcstayinskool at 9:45 AM on October 14, 2014
Skype would work. Other possibilities: kik messenger, viber. Viber requires a phone number for the account, but not on every device you run it on.
posted by mcstayinskool at 9:45 AM on October 14, 2014
Response by poster: ahh, ok, I think I've got it and lots of options to explore. thank you!
posted by egk at 9:59 AM on October 14, 2014
posted by egk at 9:59 AM on October 14, 2014
The added wrinkle is that soon, if you Upgrade them both to the latest version of iOS 8, your iPad will be able to send and receive SMS/Text messages via your iPhone
posted by Good Brain at 11:12 AM on October 14, 2014
posted by Good Brain at 11:12 AM on October 14, 2014
My husband swears by Hipchat, but he's using it to chat with his team at work. It's free if you don't need video conferencing and screen sharing.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 12:09 PM on October 14, 2014
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 12:09 PM on October 14, 2014
BBM? It's pin-based so I don't think you need a phone number...
posted by area.man at 8:04 PM on October 14, 2014
posted by area.man at 8:04 PM on October 14, 2014
I end up using Google Hangouts to chat with people on Android devices. I have an iPhone and I have people I chat with over iMessage but if someone has Android then it's just a text message tennis match. Using Hangouts allows me to have as close to the same experience as I can get with iMessage.
posted by azpenguin at 11:38 PM on October 14, 2014
posted by azpenguin at 11:38 PM on October 14, 2014
"After you update to Apple iOS 8.1, you will be able to send and receive SMS/MMS text messages from your iPad or Mac."
It sounds like this was not possible when you asked, but will be soon/today if you upgrade to 8.1 on your iPad.
posted by soelo at 10:14 AM on October 20, 2014
It sounds like this was not possible when you asked, but will be soon/today if you upgrade to 8.1 on your iPad.
posted by soelo at 10:14 AM on October 20, 2014
« Older I'm looking for a book or movie that will teach me... | Is it true that below 70 LDL, cholesterol deposits... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Green means the other person doesn't have an apple device, it's going as a text message, and either being charged for, or coming out of your allotment of text messages.
So, you're getting hit with a fee for sending from your phone to her, and probably can't send at all from the iPad since there's no text messaging plan on that device.
posted by instead of three wishes at 8:49 AM on October 14, 2014 [1 favorite]