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jclin10

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 1, 2009
149
17
My daughter has an iCloud account which we use for Messages, but her phone is not an Apple phone. When I try to text her from an Apple device, the message always defaults to sending to her iCloud account but not her non-Apple cell phone. Is there a way for me to specify that the message should go to one or the other specifically instead of automatically defaulting to the iCloud account?
 
Not sure what the real fix for that is but you could try two separate contact cards for her. Put the iCloud email in one and the phone number in the other. Use a middle initial on one of the contacts to differentiate.
 
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You might be able to force this behaviour by first sending a text to specifically her phone number, rather than using her contact. Use the New Message option in iMessage and type or paste her mobile number into the ‘To’ line.

If that works, you will probably end up with two message threads in iMessage for your daughter - one using her mobile and SMS, the other using her iCloud details and iMessage. I have this for some of my contacts who flip between numbers based on where they are in the world.

(this is kind of the same solution as @BrianBaughn suggests)
 
Never fails to amaze me how many obstacles remain between iphones and non-iphones nowadays. I don’t have OP’s problem specifically (so sorry, can’t advise) but I notice over and over again, images sent from me (iphone) to others w/o other phones arrive super fuzzy. A relative told me their solution is to have Whatsapp for a certain group who use Whatsapp for photo share, and Signal for another group who have Signal. C’mon Apple! or whoever is doing this (google or apple or both?) … let us share videos and pics w/o all these elaborate 3rd party solution run-arounds!
 
Never fails to amaze me how many obstacles remain between iphones and non-iphones nowadays. I don’t have OP’s problem specifically (so sorry, can’t advise) but I notice over and over again, images sent from me (iphone) to others w/o other phones arrive super fuzzy. A relative told me their solution is to have Whatsapp for a certain group who use Whatsapp for photo share, and Signal for another group who have Signal. C’mon Apple! or whoever is doing this (google or apple or both?) … let us share videos and pics w/o all these elaborate 3rd party solution run-arounds!
It’s coming, in iOS 18 with RCS support. MMS (which is what the carriers support) can’t handle high-res photos.
 
The simplest option would be for your daughter to disable Apple Messages, meaning her text messages will be sent received simples as normal SMS's. You folks would probably be better off switching to using some messaging system which is more cross-platform than Apple Messages. Signal or WhatsApp are probably your best bets.
 
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