Can I respond to texts on my Mac?

[heycal]

I have a Mac Air, and am currently using an iphone 4. Often I'll get in back and forth text conversations on my iphone while I'm sitting right next to my laptop.

Is there some easy way I could read an incoming text on my phone, and then send a response text that I actually type out and send from my mac? (I'm not great at tapping out long sentencs on a phone).

If so, do I have to do anything special, and would what i send show up on my phone after I pressed send all perfectly synced?

I will probably be getting a new phone, either an iphone 6 or an Android, if that effects the answers here.

 

[Mr Kram]

with handoff you can. not sure if iPhone 4 is supported though.

 

[heycal]

with handoff you can. not sure if iPhone 4 is supported though.

Cool. Thanks. Just went and read up on this "handoff", and it sounds like it may do what I want. This will be a godsend for those endless text fights with the GF.

It also says you can text to Android users from your Mac, but I was not clear if I myself could use an Android with it or one needed an iphone.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Cool. Thanks. Just went and read up on this "handoff", and it sounds like it may do what I want. This will be a godsend for those endless text fights with the GF.

It also says you can text to Android users from your Mac, but I was not clear if I myself could use an Android with it or one needed an iphone.

You can if using Yosemite and ios8.

 

[Mr Kram]

you can text to android, but you will be using your phone as a proxy so it will be SMS and not iMessage. that should only matter if you have a limited amount of texts.

 

[heycal]

You can if using Yosemite and ios8.

So must I have an iphone myself?

And I guess it would be mean upgrading to Yosemite, which I've ignored for a while now.

I assume Android has some similar feature if I went that way? Or is that a mistaken assumption?

you can text to android, but you will be using your phone as a proxy so it will be SMS and not iMessage. that should only matter if you have a limited amount of texts.

I ended up actually turning off imessage. I found the "…" to indicate that someone was typing was more trouble than it was worth to either party.

 

[Mr Kram]

I ended up actually turning off imessage. I found the "…" to indicate that someone was typing was more trouble than it was worth to either party.

this is fine unless you receive texts from someone with an iPod or iPad. i have kids and both my parents and in-laws text a lot from the iPad.

 

[g.t. rags]

So must I have an iphone myself?

And I guess it would be mean upgrading to Yosemite, which I've ignored for a while now.

I assume Android has some similar feature if I went that way? Or is that a mistaken assumption?

you might not be compatible if your using older hardware.... circa 2009.... atlas for handoff to work right

 

[heycal]

this is fine unless you receive texts from someone with an iPod or iPad. i have kids and both my parents and in-laws text a lot from the iPad.

So if someone texts me from an ipod or ipad I will not get it? What if I had and android? Could they not text me?

No one I currently text with regularly is using an ipod or ipad, but good to know for future reference.

you might not be compatible if your using older hardware.... circa 2009.... atlas for handoff to work right

I'm using a Mac Air with OS X 10.8.5, and an iphone 4. The iphone will soon be replaced with either iphone 6 or a new android.

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this is fine unless you receive texts from someone with an iPod or iPad. i have kids and both my parents and in-laws text a lot from the iPad.

So if someone texts me from an ipod or ipad I will not get it? What if I had an android? Could they not text me?

No one I currently text with regularly is using an ipod or ipad, but good to know for future reference.

you might not be compatible if your using older hardware.... circa 2009.... atlas for handoff to work right

I'm using a Mac Air with OS X 10.8.5, and an iphone 4. The iphone will soon be replaced with either iphone 6 or a new android.

 

[Mr Kram]

iMessage is for apple to apple devices whether iOS or OS X. so you cannot text from iPod to android and vice versa. same applies to texting from iPod to iPhone is iMessage is turned off.

 

[heycal]

iMessage is for apple to apple devices whether iOS or OS X.

Right. But my two main texters both have iphones and both use imessage. Me turning mine off didn't cut them off in any way -- it just changed my screen (and I guess their screen) from blue to green and eliminated the dots. So I guess I assumed that if one had an ipad and texted me, the same thing would happen.

 

[Mr Kram]

Right. But my two main texters both have iphones and both use imessage. Me turning mine off didn't cut them off in any way -- it just changed my screen (and I guess their screen) from blue to green and eliminated the dots. So I guess I assumed that if one had an ipad and texted me, the same thing would happen.

they turned green because you received their text as SMS. iPads or iPods or a mac computer does not have this capability, so you would receive any messages from them if iMessage is turned off.

 

[heycal]

so you would receive any messages from them if iMessage is turned off.

Not receive them, you mean?

Ok. Good to know. I do have one contact who uses an ipad a lot, so I'll remember this.

 

[Mr Kram]

Not receive them, you mean?

Ok. Good to know. I do have one contact who uses an ipad a lot, so I'll remember this.

sorry. yes. you won't receive them.