A beta program with more than a dozen participants, including Time, Inc., Baskin Robbins, Papa Murphy's, and Walgreens, will be able to send customers messages that go beyond just text.
- Related: Best 5 Android Apps to Make Free Calls to US Landline & Mobile Number If you have a chat app that supports Windows or MAC, you can send a message to their device and PC that can use to share photos, videos, or links you like.
- The following are some of the exciting features of TheTruthSpy which makes it a perfect choice for 4 ways to hack Whatsapp tracker messages Android phone. Spoofing the MAC Address The Difficult Way to spy Whatsapp messages.
- Of all the different PC text messaging solutions for Android, MightyText is the easiest to use. Install it on your Android, sign into Gmail, fire up the webapp and you are ready to go.
- Mac users who are also iPhone users can respond to regular text messages from Android devices directly from the Messages app, assuming their Mac supports the Continuity feature.
- Jan 23, 2017 Kakao Talk Messenger is another free messaging app similar to WhatsApp. It allows text messaging for individual and group, exchanging pictures, audio files, and calls. Like Viber or WhatsApp, Kakao Talk Messenger is also a phone number based messenger service.
If you live far away from the people you care about, video chatting is the best way to feel more like you’re there with them in person. But there are so many video chat apps out there, many of which only work on certain platforms. How do you know which one to use?
If you’ve tried to set up an initial video chat with someone, you know the problem here. My parents are both iPhone users, but I’m an Android guy. All they know is FaceTime, but I don’t have access to that. Trying to get them to understand what they need to do to chat with me can be…less than fun.
(But seriously, how about cross-platform FaceTime, Apple? We’d all use it.)
Thankfully, we’re here to help. We tested a number of apps on Android, iPhone, Windows, and macOS to find the best one for any given situation. Let’s do this thing.
Our Real Recommendation: Just Use Facebook Messenger
Look, I’ll cut the chase here: Facebook Messenger is a great way to video chat with pretty much everyone you know. You might not have realized Facebook has video chat, but it does—and it’s surprisingly good.
And, since nearly everyone is on Facebook, they probably already have the requisite app, which is available pretty much any platform—Android and iOS have dedicated mobile apps for Messenger, and computer users can just leverage the web version of Messenger.
If you and the person you want to chat with both have Facebook, it’s really a no brainer. Skip the headache and just use that.
If you don’t have Facebook (or are trying to chat with someone who doesn’t), no worries! Continue on for the various platform-based tools.
Windows to Windows: Skype
If you’re a Windows user, Skype is the obvious choice here: it comes bundled with Windows now that Microsoft owns it, and it’s become synonomous enough with video chat that basically everyone has a Skype account. Even if you don’t, you can sign in with Facebook if you want…but if you have Facebook, please just refer back to the previous section of this guide.
Chats Between Two Apple Products (Mac, iPhone, and iPad): FaceTime
Apple users! FaceTime is where it’s at for you guys, but I’ll be honest: I didn’t have to tell you that. You’re probably already on the FaceTime train. If not, aboard. Toot toot!
Seriously, though, it comes on all Macs, iPhones, and iPads, it works great, and everyone knows about it. Why would you use anything else?
Android to Android: Google Duo
Android is a bit more of a convoluted mess than iOS or Mac, because there are a ton of different apps. Skype is available on Android, Facebook Messenger is available on Android, and Google’s older video chat offering, Hangouts, is still quite good on Android. However, when it comes to Android-to-Android chats, there’s a new choice that’s better than all the rest: Google Duo.
This has, at least in theory, become the de facto standard for video chats on Android. It’s honestly the best video chat platform I’ve personally used on Android, as it just seem to work.As much as I hate to admit it, that’s something Android could use more of.
Across Other Platforms: Skype or Hangouts, Probably
Okay, so now for the real head scratcher: video chatting people who don’t have Facebook and use a different platform than you. Ugh.
The obvious choices here are going to be Skype and Hangouts. They’re both available for pretty much every major platform out there—Skype is on Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS; while Hangouts is available on Android, iOS, and the web. You’ll only need an applicable account to use either of them.
It’s also worth mentioning that if you’re trying to chat Android to iOS, Google Duo is available on both platforms as well. That would be my recommendation in that situation, though the other options mentioned here would also work.
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Active3 years ago
TL;DR
I was on ATT for years and could text iPhone and Android users with the iMessage app on my Macs and the Messages app on my iPad. I switched to T-Mobile (and ported over the same phone number) and now I can no longer use iMessage or Messages to text Android users except on my iPhone itself. How can I send and receieve text messages with Android users once again?
Devices that I Own
Similar To Text Chat For Android On Mac's Antique
- iPhone 6 running iOS 8.4 on T-Mobile Pre Paid with a ported phone number from ATT
- iPhone 5 running iOS 8.4, but no cell signal. Used as iPod.
- iPad Air WiFi running iOS 8.4
- MacBook Pro Late 2013 running Yosemite 10.10.4
- MacBook Air Mid 2012 running Yosemite 10.10.4
The Longer Story
I was on AT&T for years with multiple iPhones and I was able to use the iMessage app on my Mac laptops and the Messages app on my iPads to send text messages to people who used Android phones. Apple users received texts via the iMessage protocol and those messages showed up across all devices as blue. Android / non-iPhone users in general always used SMS/MMS and texts showed up as green across all devices. I could switch between devices and continue conversations with no problem. All devices were always aware of each conversation as they happened.
I recently switched to T-Mobile and ported over my ATT number. I can no longer use the iMessage program on my Macs nor can I use the Messages app on my iPad / iPod (okay, iPhone 5 with no cell signal) to text message friends that are not themselves Apple iPhone users. I can only text message non-Apple users by directly using my iPhone 6 running iOS Also, all devices are logged in with the same Apple ID.
I'm uncertain if the change of carriers has anything to do with it, but that's the only significnat change that's taken place that I'm aware of, and correlation always implies causation... right? Right.
How can I SMS/MMS non-iPhone people from my iPad / iPod / Macs?
Wesley
WesleyWesley19922 gold badges33 silver badges1313 bronze badges
3 Answers
On your iPhone, I'd try going into Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding and then uncheck the switches by whatever is not receiving SMS messages and then check and then re-authenticate them individually, it should only take a couple of minutes.
user343989431.8k77 gold badges4949 silver badges7070 bronze badges
RedEagle2000RedEagle20005,71733 gold badges1717 silver badges4444 bronze badges
I had a similar problem when I changed SIM cards (though I also changed numbers).
To fix the problem I suggest:
- Signing out of iCloud on your devices and then (starting with your phone) signing back into all of them. This seemed to update my iMessage associated number (which doesn't seem to apply to your situation since you didn't change numbers - so perhaps you can skip this)
- Ensure that on all your devices iCloud accounts that your email AND (correct) phone number are listed. If your email isn't listed then add it (if your number isn't listed then repeat the above step)
- On your iPhone 6 go into settings -> messages -> text message forwarding and enable it on all of your devices (that should all be connected to the internet).
- Enter the relevant codes that pop up on your devices
Note:I think you'd really benefit from updating your iPad Air to iOS 8.whatever instead of trying to get it to work with iOS6
I'm also not sure if you're going to run into problems trying to get it to work on 2 phone devices. I'd try and get it working on all the other devices first and only then try and add your iPhone 5 into your ecosystem.
Helpful sites:
Hopefully you get it working!
m4p85rm4p85r
I had the same issues after I restored my iPhone 6. Going into
Settings > Messages > Text message forwarding
did the trick. The only hangup was that the code took about 30 seconds to appear on my Mac's screen. And if you're impatient like I was you cancelled and tried it again some 5 times. So I'd suggest waiting at least 2 minutes before cancelling.
It works, afterall.
Jawa2,26755 gold badges1717 silver badges2525 bronze badges
user147267user147267
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