Messages in combo with Android phone?

[scouser75]

Guys, I have an Android Nexus 5 phone. I also have an iPad Air 2.

If I setup Messages and FaceTime on my iPad and Mac desktop, if someone was to send me a message from their iPhone would I still receive it on my Android phone? Or would it only go to my iPad?

I know in the past, if you had Messages setup on your iPhone and then you bought a new phone and sold the other one, if you didn't turn off Messages you would not receive Messages sent from someones iPhone.

Hope this makes sense

 

[Julien]

Messages is iOS only. They would have to send as a text for your Android to receive.

 

[sundog925]

Android is standalone to iDevices. You would only receive the SMS if your phone was an iPhone, and receive them in both places.

 

[scouser75]

Android is standalone to iDevices. You would only receive the SMS if your phone was an iPhone, and receive them in both places.

Thanks guys. So if I was to activate Messages on my iPad and Mac, I will get Messages on them AND also on my Android Nexus phone?

I know that when I first went from iPhone to Android, because I didn't deactivate Messages on the iPhone I was unable to receive messages sent to me from an iPhone on my android.

 

[jmmo20]

Thanks guys. So if I was to activate Messages on my iPad and Mac, I will get Messages on them AND also on my Android Nexus phone?

I know that when I first went from iPhone to Android, because I didn't deactivate Messages on the iPhone I was unable to receive messages sent to me from an iPhone on my android.

No.

You activate iMessage with your phone number and email address. Someone with an iphone sends you a message through the messages app:

- Your Android phone will NOT receive it
- Your iPad/Mac WILL receive it

If someone sends you a normal SMS message:
- You android phone WILL receive it
- Your iPad/Mac will NOT receive it

If someone sends you an imessage to your email address (not phone number):
- Your android phone will NOT receive it
- Your iPad/Mac WILL receive it.



You see, the main issue with your set up (because you didn't kill imessage when switching) is that iPhone users have little control (most of the time) over whether a text they send is actually sent through a carrier SMS or apple's iMessage. Therefore BY DAFAULT, everyone texting you from an iphone will actually send you a message that won't EVER reach your actual phone.

I say most of the time because if you send an imessage and you are quick enough, you can re-send it as SMS assuming your ipads/macs haven't received it yet. The window is small, about a second.

I find this extremely annoying, a friend of mine did the same thing as you did because he wanted to keep using imessage from his mac. As a consequence, I now have to use Whatsapp to reach him on his actual phone because using messages would result in an imessage and him not being able to read the text for hours.

 

[Agent-P]

You activate iMessage with your phone number and email address. Someone with an iphone sends you a message through the messages app:

- Your Android phone will NOT receive it
- Your iPad/Mac WILL receive it

If someone sends you a normal SMS message:
- You android phone WILL receive it
- Your iPad/Mac will NOT receive it

If someone sends you an imessage to your email address (not phone number):
- Your android phone will NOT receive it
- Your iPad/Mac WILL receive it.

This is a perfect breakdown of how the messages will come through and what to expect, OP. Unfortunately Apple doesn't want to play nicely with devices outside their ecosystem so there isn't much that can be done about it.

 

[Gav2k]

You can't 'add' the nexus phone number to iMessage! iMessage would be using email only

 

[sundog925]

Any traditional SMS sent to your phone can be relayed to a Mac however via text message forwarding in iOS 8.0 and a machine running Yosemite. It's dope to text back your android friends from your mac computer.

 

[Agent-P]

Any traditional SMS sent to your phone can be relayed to a Mac however via text message forwarding in iOS 8.0 and a machine running Yosemite. It's dope to text back your android friends from your mac computer.

Does that still work if you have an Android phone? I thought the reason that's possible is because the iPhone is pushing those SMS messages to the Mac?

 

[jmmo20]

Any traditional SMS sent to your phone can be relayed to a Mac however via text message forwarding in iOS 8.0 and a machine running Yosemite. It's dope to text back your android friends from your mac computer.

No it won't be relayed unless you have an actual iPhone.
Macs or ipads can't receive SMS natively so they rely on iphones to forward SMS messages. The OP has no iphone, therefore SMS will only be received in their android phone.

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Does that still work if you have an Android phone? I thought the reason that's possible is because the iPhone is pushing those SMS messages to the Mac?

you are 100% right.

 

[XTheLancerX]

You could possibly set up something with Google Voice (Hangouts?) or if you have Verizon, use Verizon Messages? That would make SMS go to and from each device, but it still doesn't work for iMessage on both. Unless you have friends or family who can ONLY use iMessage, this shouldn't be too much of an issue, just turn off iMessage and tell the people who you use iMessage with to text your phone instead. I used to use a combo of VZ Messages and iMessage when I had my Galaxy S4. I could use my iPad for everything and I didn't need to touch my phone. Was pretty good considering I hated my phone lol. So glad I got my iPhone 6, and with iOS 8, iMessage, SMS, and calls can be done on either device. If possible, you may want to consider switching your Nexus 5 over to an iPhone at some point if you want "cohesiveness" to your messaging and general communication.

 

[scouser75]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I think I'll play it safe and not activate iMessages. I've had problems in the past where people have sent me messages from their iPhones and I haven't received them on my Android.

I think it's primarily to do with the fact that they had their iPhone set up to send to email rather than phone number - they just didn't realise that's how they'd set it up!

It's a shame Apple do it this way.

 

[C DM]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I think I'll play it safe and not activate iMessages. I've had problems in the past where people have sent me messages from their iPhones and I haven't received them on my Android.

I think it's primarily to do with the fact that they had their iPhone set up to send to email rather than phone number - they just didn't realise that's how they'd set it up!

It's a shame Apple do it this way.

Apple doesn't really set things up to go to or from email for Messages, people would have to select that themselves.

 

[scouser75]

Gotcha. So some people may have set up without knowing they're using iMessage as apposed to SMS.

I think I'm going to play it safe and stay off iMessage

Thanks again for the info guys.