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SMS on iPhone with no sim

A

amoda

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 9, 2006
660
8
Hey,

By my understanding, Apple will (somehow) be able to send SMS messages to iPads and Macs. I was wondering if anyone is aware, or has tested, if this feature works with iPhones that don't have a sim card installed.

I'd love if this worked, it'd be great for receiving SMS while traveling abroad.
 
You still need a sim card, your iPhone is just relying the SMS texts to your other Apple devices.
 
amoda said:
Hey,

By my understanding, Apple will (somehow) be able to send SMS messages to iPads and Macs. I was wondering if anyone is aware, or has tested, if this feature works with iPhones that don't have a sim card installed.

I'd love if this worked, it'd be great for receiving SMS while traveling abroad.
Click to expand...
How can it be possible to send a real SMS without a SIM-card? I appear to be missing something, but apart from going the WhatsApp/iMessage etc way, I can't imagine there can ever be a feature like this. What would we otherwise need the phone network/SIM-card for?
 
madsci954 said:
You still need a sim card, your iPhone is just relying the SMS texts to your other Apple devices.
Click to expand...

Aah, okay. Thanks for the info!

iMacBooked said:
How can it be possible to send a real SMS without a SIM-card? I appear to be missing something, but apart from going the WhatsApp/iMessage etc way, I can't imagine there can ever be a feature like this. What would we otherwise need the phone network/SIM-card for?
Click to expand...

I'm more interested in receiving SMS than sending them. I sometimes have to travel quite a bit and get regular messages from uni/work. It'd be great if I could switch off the mobile aspect (3G/4G) and stick to wifi only and still receive SMS.

Not the end of the world if it doesn't work, but it'd save me from having to purchase roaming plans if it did.
 
amoda said:
Aah, okay. Thanks for the info!



I'm more interested in receiving SMS than sending them. I sometimes have to travel quite a bit and get regular messages from uni/work. It'd be great if I could switch off the mobile aspect (3G/4G) and stick to wifi only and still receive SMS.

Not the end of the world if it doesn't work, but it'd save me from having to purchase roaming plans if it did.
Click to expand...

You can't send an SMS without a sim card installed, it's not physically possible. The only way your iPad and Mac will be able to do it is if your iPhone with a sim card installed is nearby.
 
For continuity to work, your iOS and OSX devices have to be on the same Wi-Fi network.
 
batongxue said:
For continuity to work, your iOS and OSX devices have to be on the same Wi-Fi network.
Click to expand...

I really hoped iPhone could relay SMS to/from iPad/Mac over any data connection :(

Be fantastic if I accidentally left my iPhone at a friends house but could continue to text on my Mac.... well, until the iPhone battery died.
 
bkribbs said:
Is that confirmed? I've been wondering exactly how that works.
Click to expand...

http://www.apple.com/ios/ios8/continuity/

Apple says so
So it must be :(


Edit:
Kind of more complicated than I thought. Seems only phone calls require the same WiFi.
Handoff is taking advantage of Airdrop, and since SMS contains little info, they should be easily handled by iCloud.
 

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snappyfool said:
this image only explicitly and directly says that calls must be done over the same wifi.

anyone know for sure about sms relay/syncing? the bit about sms on that page doesn't mention wifi. will try to find out...
Click to expand...

yeah, I've edit my previous comment to correct
you can check it out.

----------
bkribbs said:
Well that's ok. I was wondering how it would work. Thanks for the info, I hadn't seen that!
Click to expand...

No problem.
A little mislead though, I've corrected it.
 
snappyfool said:
this image only explicitly and directly says that calls must be done over the same wifi.

anyone know for sure about sms relay/syncing? the bit about sms on that page doesn't mention wifi. will try to find out...
Click to expand...

It seems regarding the SMS´s , the devices can be in diferent places. This Guy received an SMS in his iOS 7 iPhone and simultaneously in his iOS 8 iPad ( via Wifi ), in totally different locations ! Very convenient !

So it seems the SMS might pass threw apple servers / iCloud ?

It s in Portuguese, u might have to translate it

http://cocatech.com.br/ios-8-sms-em-todos-os-dispositivos-e-via-internet
 
Purex said:
It seems regarding the SMS´s , the devices can be in diferent places. This Guy received an SMS in his iOS 7 iPhone and simultaneously in his iOS 8 iPad ( via Wifi ), in totally different locations ! Very convenient !

So it seems the SMS might pass threw apple servers / iCloud ?

It s in Portuguese, u might have to translate it

http://cocatech.com.br/ios-8-sms-em-todos-os-dispositivos-e-via-internet
Click to expand...

THanks, and thanks to batongxue too.

Yeah, pretty sure it must pass through apple's servers.

I imagine it sort of works like a hidden/spoofed iMessage, repurposing some of their existing infrastructure. so, you get an sms on you phone, it sends it to apple's iMessage servers and sends it back to your other devices through the usual iMessage channels, with info about the original sms sender so they can make it appear as a green bubble with the correct sender ID, etc.

well, however it works, it's cool it works from anywhere. cheers.
 
iBlazed said:
You can't send an SMS without a sim card installed, it's not physically possible. The only way your iPad and Mac will be able to do it is if your iPhone with a sim card installed is nearby.
Click to expand...

I totally get that! Like I said, I'm more interested in receiving an SMS message while connected to WI-FI but without cellular connection/SIM card.

At any rate, if I'm understanding this correctly, it goes like this:

SMS --> iPhone with SIM --> Apple Server --> other iCloud devices/SIMless devices

So, if I want to do what I want, I can buy an iPhone 4 to put my SIM in it and leave it at home. That way it can relay the received SMS to Apple's servers, and I can pick it up on my main phone when connected to Wi-Fi only.
 
amoda said:
I totally get that! Like I said, I'm more interested in receiving an SMS message while connected to WI-FI but without cellular connection/SIM card.

At any rate, if I'm understanding this correctly, it goes like this:

SMS --> iPhone with SIM --> Apple Server --> other iCloud devices/SIMless devices

So, if I want to do what I want, I can buy an iPhone 4 to put my SIM in it and leave it at home. That way it can relay the received SMS to Apple's servers, and I can pick it up on my main phone when connected to Wi-Fi only.
Click to expand...

4S. You will need iOS 8, and the 4 is not getting it.
 
madsci954 said:
4S. You will need iOS 8, and the 4 is not getting it.
Click to expand...

You don't need iOS 8 to receive SMS messages.

He/she is using an iPhone 4 to receive the SMS messages and will relay them to Apple's servers.

I'm just confused why he/she is choosing to leave an iPhone with an active SIM at home to receive the SMS messages. If your main phone has an active SIM, why aren't you using it to receive SMS messages, which will then be relayed to Apple's servers?
 
hungx said:
He/she is using an iPhone 4 to receive the SMS messages and will relay them to Apple's servers.
Click to expand...

Why would it do that if it's running iOS 7.x? Are you suggesting Apple are already relaying our SMS to their servers?
 
iMacBooked said:
If you backup your phone with iCloud, those messages are stored on their servers as well, wouldn't make much difference. I don't believe in privacy anymore.
Click to expand...

I'm not immediately concerned about privacy. I just doubt that stuff is built into 7.x already. All these features we're talking about are for iOS 8, there's absolutely no reason to believe yet that iOS 7 devices will be able to do this.
 
It would be cool to see caller ID on your Apple TV is someone is trying to call you or FaceTime you if your phone is on the same wifi network kinda like with the Mac now. I know a bunch of cable provider's set top boxes do this and it's pretty cool. Yeah I'm that lazy.

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SMS isn't encrypted anyway, so....
 
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