Apple allows you to send SMS to your Mac or iPad, but this option is often reset. Don’t forget to re-activate SMS forwarding if necessary.
Porting the Messages app from iPhone to Mac and/or iPad was a good move by Apple. Whether you’re working on your Mac or watching Netflix on your iPad, following a conversation on the same device is much more convenient than constantly reaching for your iPhone. But while iMessages reach the device without any problems, text messages and their “green bubbles”have difficulty in this regard. These blisters, however, can be endured, moreover, they must be endured.
Apple allows you to send SMS to Mac or iPad, but this option is often reset.
On the iPhone, “green bubbles”means trouble. That means no iMessage, no FaceTime (easy) and no problems with group chats. Actually the green circle just means it’s text sent from something other than the iPhone, and these messages wouldn’t get such a bad rap if Apple implemented RCS. But green bubbles do exist, and we need them to send text messages to owners of non-iPhone devices.
Receiving such messages on your Mac or iPad is sometimes also required to connect to a specific account. Every time you try to sign in to a service with two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled, you will receive a 2FA code in a green bubble. If you sign in on your Mac or iPad and receive a text message on that device, you can automatically complete the code without opening the message. Otherwise, you’ll have to put your hand on your iPhone, open the message, read the code, and enter it.
Don’t forget to re-activate SMS forwarding if needed
But this is not inevitable. Apple offers a feature called SMS Forwarding that does just that: you can forward your text messages to any Apple device that’s signed in with your Apple ID. Unfortunately, this setting is often reset, for example, when you change your iPhone, especially when you don’t restore from the latest backup, which causes your green bubbles to no longer carry over to your Mac.
Luckily, this is an easy “fix”: open your iPhone, go to Settings, then Messages. Find the “SMS Forwarding”option and click on it. There you will see all devices registered to your Apple ID, be it Mac, iPad, iPod Touch, or other iPhones. To forward text messages to these devices, tap the slider next to each device you want to benefit from.
Remember this setting the next time you no longer see text messages coming to your Mac or iPad.