iPhone SMS forwarding?

[pgoelz]

OK, I'm confused.

I have two iPhones. One is on ATT (iPhone 7) and the other is on Xfinity Mobile (iPhone SE).

Both phones are running ios 11.4.

Both phones are signed into the same Apple account.

Both phones have iMessage enabled for iCloud.

Both phones show their own phone number plus the other's phone number in SETTINGS > NAME, PHONE NUMBERS, EMAIL.

The ATT phone shows the Xfinity phone under TEXT MESSAGE FORWARDING.

The Xfinity phone shows the ATT phone under TEXT MESSAGE FORWARDING.

I would like to be able to receive SMS (as well as iMessages) sent to the ATT phone on the Xfinity phone. However, this is not working and I can't determine if the feature is broken or if I'm just holding it wrong Can anyone clarify..... is SMS forwarding even supposed to work with SMS in ios? Everything I read implies it is supposed to work but I have my doubts for SMS.

Additionally, I tried this between my wife's two devices.... an iPhone 5 (running ios 10.x) and an iPad (running ios 11.4). iMessages sent to her iPhone 5 did show up on the iPad but for some reason, did not produce a notification on the iPad. Kinda useless without notifications. SMS sent to the iPhone did NOT show up on the iPad.

Paul

 

[BrianBaughn]

It wouldn't make sense to be able to forward SMS from one iPhone to another as each phone is on its own SMS system. It's not set up for phone number A to be able to respond to SMS messages sent to phone number B.

I will say that Apple's support pages on this subject are a little vague but if you look on this one under "Use SMS and MMS messaging" you'll see a link for "forwarding SMS/MMS messages from your iPhone to an iPad, iPod touch, or Mac." Notice that it doesn't claim "another iPhone".

 

[dk001]

It wouldn't make sense to be able to forward SMS from one iPhone to another as each phone is on its own SMS system. It's not set up for phone number A to be able to respond to SMS messages sent to phone number B.

I will say that Apple's support pages on this subject are a little vague but if you look on this one under "Use SMS and MMS messaging" you'll see a link for "forwarding SMS/MMS messages from your iPhone to an iPad, iPod touch, or Mac." Notice that it doesn't claim "another iPhone".

Actually it does work.
When I was testing an 8+ and an X (both different phone numbers on AT&T), I was able to forward and share texts between these devices and an IPP. True, I was surprised but it did work. I initially expected and endless forwarding loop between the devices (phones). Don't have them to test under 11.4. Was done under 11.3 and 11.3.1

 

[pgoelz]

I agree, I had my doubts it would work on SMS (as opposed to iMessages, which is a captive Apple system). However, the function specifically mentions SMS so I thought I'd try it. It would be VERY desirable to be able to have SMS sent to my ATT phone also available on my Xfinity Mobile phone so I don't have to carry two phones around while evaluating whether I want to keep Xfinity as my main carrier. Calls I can forward. Texts have always been an issue. Or so I thought......

Actually it does work.
When I was testing an 8+ and an X (both different phone numbers on AT&T), I was able to forward and share texts between these devices and an IPP. True, I was surprised but it did work. I initially expected and endless forwarding loop between the devices (phones). Don't have them to test under 11.4. Was done under 11.3 and 11.3.1

When you were sharing "texts", were they plain SMS or were they iMessages?

Paul

 

[dk001]

I agree, I had my doubts it would work on SMS (as opposed to iMessages, which is a captive Apple system). However, the function specifically mentions SMS so I thought I'd try it. It would be VERY desirable to be able to have SMS sent to my ATT phone also available on my Xfinity Mobile phone so I don't have to carry two phones around while evaluating whether I want to keep Xfinity as my main carrier. Calls I can forward. Texts have always been an issue. Or so I thought......



When you were sharing "texts", were they plain SMS or were they iMessages?

Paul

iMessage. Standard texts (like from my Android devices) would only share with the IPP, not the other iPhone.
Standard SMS/MMS - iPhoneA <> IPP or iPhoneB <> IPP
iMessage - iPhoneA <> IPP <> iPhoneB

 

[BrianBaughn]

SMS. That's what I said.

 

[NoBoMac]

Re: wife's iPad not getting a notification: yes, can see that in that, to me, seems like notifications in 11 have been a real hit-miss proposition. I initially was not getting Wallet notification banners. Setup as new and banners returned for a while, but then stopped again around 11.3.1 timeframe. Might try signing the iPad Messages out and back in to iCloud and or turn off notifications for it and re-enable.

As to why the messages are not going to the other phone, I do see maybe why it's not happening, and they are design choice/use cases.

Use case, the multiple phones might have been deemed an edge case in that most people have one phone and one or more other Apple device, so why bother with being able to reply from different phone. Add in could be difficult to implement on the other devices side (eg. the settings for "Originate Messages from" setting: which phone is originator, how can one easily toggle between, how does one know they are using the correct number), and to distinguish between messages deemed for phone 1 vs phone 2 in the UI.

Design choice, and maybe driven by the cellcos, don't want users to skirt caps on text plans. Yeah, sounds dumb in today's environment, what with almost every plan has unlimited texting, but back when this feature was debuted (iOS 8?), text plans were still somewhat a big thing.

 

[dk001]

Re: wife's iPad not getting a notification: yes, can see that in that, to me, seems like notifications in 11 have been a real hit-miss proposition. I initially was not getting Wallet notification banners. Setup as new and banners returned for a while, but then stopped again around 11.3.1 timeframe. Might try signing the iPad Messages out and back in to iCloud and or turn off notifications for it and re-enable.

As to why the messages are not going to the other phone, I do see maybe why it's not happening, and they are design choice/use cases.

Use case, the multiple phones might have been deemed an edge case in that most people have one phone and one or more other Apple device, so why bother with being able to reply from different phone. Add in could be difficult to implement on the other devices side (eg. the settings for "Originate Messages from" setting: which phone is originator, how can one easily toggle between, how does one know they are using the correct number), and to distinguish between messages deemed for phone 1 vs phone 2 in the UI.

Design choice, and maybe driven by the cellcos, don't want users to skirt caps on text plans. Yeah, sounds dumb in today's environment, what with almost every plan has unlimited texting, but back when this feature was debuted (iOS 8?), text plans were still somewhat a big thing.

During my testing that was one aspect I wanted to really work: ability to send/receive texts from any Apple device - iPhone 8+, iPhone X, IPP, rMB. Didn't always work. Maybe someday. Be nice if / when they get it all straightened out.

 

[NoBoMac]

This is working for atleast on person:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/is-text-forwarding-still-needed-with-ios-11-4.2121106/

 

[Apple_Robert]

I have been in touch with Apple Support, as well as a Senior Advisor this evening over the OP's subject. We tried several different basic things this evening to no avail (including signing out of iMessage, reset all network settings, on both phones). I have another call to the same advisor setup for Monday afternoon. According to support, as long as all devices are signed into the same icloud account, the text(s) should appear on all devices, even if one of the devices has a different cellular number.

After thinking about this some more while tossing and turning in bed, I got up, got both phones and went to testing different settings again.

I have two iPhones X's (Verizon and T-Mobile). All my devices use the same iCloud account. I enabled messages in iCloud again on both phones and rebooted both phones. I had also logged out of Messages and Facetime earlier. Under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > Reached by > both phone numbers are checked, along with just my iCloud account email on both phones (even though I have other emails listed and had previously checked). On the Verizon phone, under Messages > Text forwarding > the iMac and T-Mobile toggle is turned on. I do not have text forwarding turned on on the T-Mobile phone. With this current setup, I am receiving text messages on all 3 devices (from an Android family member) sending a text to the Verizon phone. I am also receiving the appropriate audible notification on the different devices, depending on which phone or watch is active etc..

When sending a text from the Verizon phone to the T-Mobile phone, the text is received on the T-Mobile device but there is no audible notification. The same holds true in reverse.

Hopefully, the Apple Senior Advisor will be able to shed light on this situation on Monday afternoon.

Don't know if this post will help anyone else but, at least texts are now syncing to all devices with the ability to delete, which wasn't happening before. I shouldn't have to have text-forwarding enabled to get this done. But for now, I am leaving it enabled on the Verizon phone until I talk with the advisor again.

 

[cynics]

OK, I'm confused.

I have two iPhones. One is on ATT (iPhone 7) and the other is on Xfinity Mobile (iPhone SE).

Both phones are running ios 11.4.

Both phones are signed into the same Apple account.

Both phones have iMessage enabled for iCloud.

Both phones show their own phone number plus the other's phone number in SETTINGS > NAME, PHONE NUMBERS, EMAIL.

The ATT phone shows the Xfinity phone under TEXT MESSAGE FORWARDING.

The Xfinity phone shows the ATT phone under TEXT MESSAGE FORWARDING.

I would like to be able to receive SMS (as well as iMessages) sent to the ATT phone on the Xfinity phone. However, this is not working and I can't determine if the feature is broken or if I'm just holding it wrong Can anyone clarify..... is SMS forwarding even supposed to work with SMS in ios? Everything I read implies it is supposed to work but I have my doubts for SMS.

Additionally, I tried this between my wife's two devices.... an iPhone 5 (running ios 10.x) and an iPad (running ios 11.4). iMessages sent to her iPhone 5 did show up on the iPad but for some reason, did not produce a notification on the iPad. Kinda useless without notifications. SMS sent to the iPhone did NOT show up on the iPad.

Paul

You should be receiving messages on both phones. Have you tried doing a restart/reboot? As a very last resort you can try logging in and out of iCloud (depending on other Apple devices this can be a nuisance).

This may or may not be the case for you but you should only get a notification alert on other devices if you are viewing the message on another device. This is a feature (a very important one) so your Apple Watch, iPad, Mac, etc aren't constantly alerts while you are activity viewing the messages. Try locking all the devices and then sending a message to her....if the notifications are set up properly she should get an alert on the iPhone and the iPad (sometimes one device is slower so be patient).

HTH

 

[NoBoMac]

When sending a text from the Verizon phone to the T-Mobile phone, the text is received on the T-Mobile device but there is no audible notification. The same holds true in reverse.

I have run into something similar, but with Mail app.

Was using a publisher's app for their news and wanted to get to the bypass paywall link and trim out the extra noise that these type of emails have (ie. the share article with a friend email publisher generates). It used the Mail app for sending. Sent the email to myself, a Gmail account. Since it basically didn't go anywhere (had a copy in Sent, Archive, and Inbox), app never chimed, changed the notification bubble.

Wonder if something similar is going on as it is being treated as not really a "new" message since you are sending to yourself and basically already saw it.

Basically, what Cynics above is saying.

 

[iOZZY]

i Have 2 iPhones, my main phone is a 6 Plus on EE and my cycling/outdoors phone is a SE on BT Mobile. Both have different numbers but used on the same Apple account. SMS relay sends SMS from the 6 plus to my SE and iPad. As long as there is a conversation list in the SE, the SE will reply via the 6 plus thus retaining the 6 plus number. This is good as people know it is from me.

SMS conversations started from the SE will use the BT Mobile number though.

Not tried this with iOS 11.4 with message in iCloud though!

 

[Apple_Robert]

I have run into something similar, but with Mail app.

Was using a publisher's app for their news and wanted to get to the bypass paywall link and trim out the extra noise that these type of emails have (ie. the share article with a friend email publisher generates). It used the Mail app for sending. Sent the email to myself, a Gmail account. Since it basically didn't go anywhere (had a copy in Sent, Archive, and Inbox), app never chimed, changed the notification bubble.

Wonder if something similar is going on as it is being treated as not really a "new" message since you are sending to yourself and basically already saw it.

Basically, what Cynics above is saying.

That is a good point. I need to confirm with the Senior Advisor about this aspect.