How to Send Texts from Your Mac using iOS 8

We all have that friend, the one who doesn’t have an iPhone.  It wouldn’t be so bad, except you can’t iMessage them from your Mac.  When Apple introduced iMessage it meant the end of worrying about how many text messages you’ve gone through, so long as the person you were messaging had an iPhone.

With the latest OSX Yosemite and iOS 8 updates Apple has decided it’s ok to be friends with Non-iPhone people by adding a new feature to OSX Yosemite and iOS 8 that allows you to type an SMS in OSX’s Messages App and have it relayed to your iPhone to be sent.  Apple groups this with their continuity features that allows you to seamlessly perform activities between Apple devices.

To setup SMS Continuity:

1.  Tap Settings.

2.  Scroll down and Tap on Messages.

3. Tap on Text Message Forward.

4.  You’ll see a list of devices that you’d want to send text messages from, i.e. your Mac.  Tap on the switch to turn it on.

5. You’ll get a pop up asking for a verification code.  On your Mac, you’ll see a pop up in Messages with said code.  Enter that code into the box on your iPhone. Then click Allow.

6.  The switch for Text Message Forwarding will now be on.

Go ahead and give it a try.  Go into Messages on your Mac.  Create a new message to a friend who doesn’t have an iPhone, and watch the magic happen.  You can now be friends with people who don’t have iPhones once again!

Leave us a comment below and tell us what the craziest non-iPhone that your friends still use and that you can now text from your Mac.