The oldest parts of the cellular phone system are figuratively control together with volaille wire and chewing gumwood , and wireless carriers have little motivation to change it because it works and nets them billions upon billions of dollars . Apple created iMessage for an improved ( and ensure ) message ecosystem and married it on the iPhone with “ traditional ” SMS ( text edition ) and MMS ( multimedia ) cellular electronic messaging organisation .

On your iPhone , you’re able to beam and receive cellular texts and iMessages . Apple pass the iPhone ’s phone web potentiality to your other iCloud - linked devices many years ago to render that same access to the non - Apple world of texting .

To make certain it all works as you care , you may postulate to check and convert options in multiple places .

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First , on your iPhone inSettings > Messages :

On your other devices , ensure the iPhone ’s phone phone number is selected as a valid way to receive messages :

This Mac 911 article is in response to a question take by Macworld reader Olive .

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