Seamlessly Syncing iMessage to your Apple Devices

Seamlessly Syncing iMessage to your Apple Devices. 

My objective is to be able to demonstrate how to update your settings on your iPhone and iPad so that iMessage works seamlessly on all of your iOS devices. I want you to be able to get the most out of devices and have a great user experience. These changes in your settings will allow you to receive an iMessage on both devices at the same time so that you can pick up a conversation where you left off on either device. 

Before I discuss the important steps to take in changing your settings, I thought I would give a very high level lesson on how iMessage works. Remember these are not the intricate pieces of the functionality behind iMessage but rather a quick overview. 

When you want to send a message (text or iMessage) from your iPhone the functionality is integrated in the message app. As you select a contact, the app determines if your contact is set up on the cloud by the phone number or email address.  Then the message is sent to the contact either as a normal text message (rates apply) or iMessage. 

My objective is not to show you how to initiate the set up for iMessage but rather show you how to make changes to those settings to allow iMessage to work across all of your devices instantly. So I apologize if I assume you have already set your iPhone up for iMessage.

I had both of my devices activated and both were capable of sending messages but I could never figure out why I never received the same message on all my devices as advertised. 

First off, make sure you have activated iMessage on your iOS devices using your Apple ID. So as mentioned earlier I assume you have completed this task on your iPhone but go ahead and activate this for your iPad. This should now allow you to send messages from both devices and receive messages. This step actually ties your devices to the same Apple ID so they are compatible. 

Next is a very important step and should allow you get one step closer to your goal. Go to your settings app then tap on messages, on this screen locate “Receive At” and tap on it. On the top of the screen should be your Apple ID but the next set of data fields are  where we need to focus our attention. If you are changing the settings on the iPhone, then the first line should have your phone number. Now you need to add an email address or confirm what is there is correct. Make sure this is the email address that you want associated with iMessage (if sharing Apple ID with spouse for itune purchases then you probably do not want to use the email address that is associated with Apple ID). Now when you make this change on your iPad or any other iOS device, make sure you use the same email address on all devices. When you go through this step for the iPad and you tap on “Receive At” the only item listed should be the same email address.   This step will keep your conversations in sync on all of your devices. 

Finally, I believe this to be the MOST important step. On the “Receive At” screen you have a data field called “Caller ID” tap on it. You have two options on your iPhone: 

(1) your cell number, or (2) the email address you entered earlier. The purpose of this article is to show you how to sync your conversations on all of your iOS devices so that they instantly appear at the same time, no matter who generates the conversation, you or your contact. So with that said, you need to select the email address as your “Caller ID”. Now make the same change on your iPad for “Caller ID”. 

You might ask why do I want to change the Caller ID to something other than my phone number. Well this step is the KEY to making this app work beautifully. I will try to explain but then I will give an example below as to how this works and why its important. 

The iPad does not have a phone number so when you generate an iMessage from your iPhone with the Caller ID set as “phone” then your contact will respond to your phone only, thus causing the iMessage not to be received on your iPad. But if you have the Caller ID set as your email address then when your contact responds to your message it sends to all devices associated with that email address. So whats important is that you start generating “new” iMessage threads to your friends after your make these changes. That way they will automatically start using that contact as their “go to” contact for your without even knowing its your email address rather than your phone number. But this is not a full proof method as some of your friends may generate an iMessage directly to your phone number, so its important to share your email address with your close friends and ask them to add it to their contacts. Also it is important to be aware of what contact you are using for your self when generating a new iMessage thread, be sure its generating from your email contact. 

I hope this sheds some light on how this application works and allows you to experience the most from your iOS devices. 

-- Clint Hardeman