Of course, if you already have a working iPhone that can send SMS text messages, you might not need to use your iPad to text. There, you’ll be able to select an iPad that you can share text messages with. To set it up, open Settings on your iPhone and visit Messages > Text Message Forwarding. You can do this with a feature Apple calls Text Message Forwarding. It’s possible to send and receive SMS text messages through your iPad if you have a working iPhone linked to it through Continuity, which is Apple’s way of sharing connections through its devices. Option 1: Link an iPhone to Your iPad via Continuity Even if you have an iPad with a cellular data plan for mobile internet on the go, you still can’t send SMS text messages unless you use one of the workarounds listed below. But by default, iPads can’t send SMS text messages through Apple’s Messages app. On an iPhone, Messages can also send and receive SMS text messages. Currently, Messages is only available on Apple platforms, so Windows and Android customers can’t use it. Most Apple users communicate through the Apple Messages app, which uses Apple’s own internet-based iMessage protocol when communicating with other Messages uses on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac. RELATED: Why SMS Text Messages Aren't Private or Secure How Are Apple Messages Different Than SMS Text Messaging? A related technology, MMS (multimedia message service), allows cell phones to send photos and videos to each other through the cell phone network. SMS stands for “short message service.” It’s the industry-standard protocol that cell phones use to send text messages to each other.

To understand the iPad’s limitations on sending text messages, we first need to define what an SMS text message is.

Send text from macbook pro