Recently I noted that, for whatever reason, Messages on my Mac quit offering the option to send folks messages in any format but its native iMessage format. Since some of my friends, relatives and business associates are still heathens and don't have Macs or iPhones, I had to rejigger things so I could send simple text messages.
How to Hide Text Messages on the iPhone (Turn Off Preview). When you receive a message now, not even a notification will show up on the lock screen. Instead, the phone will either make the text message sound or vibrate if you have it on silent. Text Message Forwarding.
If you're facing the same problem, here's how you send SMS texts from OS X Messages (You'll need both your Mac and iPhone handy):
Text Message Forwarding Apple
- Make sure your Mac's running OS X Yosemite (10.10 or higher) and your iPhone is running iOS 8.x.
- Click on the Messages app in your Mac to open it.
- Go to your iPhone. Tap Settings > Messages.
- Tap Text Message Forwarding.
- You'll see a list of all your devices linked to your Apple ID. Choose the one you want to send and receive messages and select On.
- You'll see a six-digit code pop up in Messages on your Mac. An alert window will appear marked Text Message Forwarding will show up on the iPhone.
- Enter the six digit code displayed in Messages on the Mac into the alert window on the iPhone and tap Allow.
Voila! You're ready. When someone sends a text message to your iPhone, it will appear inside Messages in Yosemite. And you can now reply with a text message from your Mac — or start a new text message. To start a new message:
- In the Messages window, click the Compose button to start a new message.
- Enter a name, an email address, or a phone number in the To field.
- Enter message text in the field at the bottom of the window. You can also drag files, such as a photo, to the field at the bottom of the window.
- Press Return on your keyboard to send the message.
Iphone Text Message Forwarding
We already covered how to set up Text Message Forwarding from your iPhone to another iOS device or Mac, but there was a key troubleshooting element we unknowingly left out of the guide.
As mentioned in the original story, you need to have iMessage enabled on your iPhone in order to enable text message forwarding. More importantly, however, you need to have an email address enabled in iMessage settings during the setup process, as discovered by MacRumors. If not, you're likely to run into an issue where the activation code never appears on your iPad or Mac.
If you attempt to enable text message forwarding but the activation code never shows up, here's what you need to do:
- Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down to the Messages option and tap on it.
- Tap on Send & Receive.
- Enable an email address by tapping on it. A check mark will be placed next to it once it's active.
Now, back out of the Send & Receive section and request another activation code be sent to one of your devices. Easy, right?
The MacRumors report goes on to say you can go back and disable the email address after all of your devices are set up and everything will remain working.
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