Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:

I believe this should be possible using an email address…?

I want to find an easier way to keep in touch with mum. She has an older
iPad and a dumb phone. She struggles with emails but can text just fine and is ok using the iPad for games and reading emails (she struggles to send them). I’m trying to figure out if we can use her (gmail) email address to set up a ‘closed network’ (just her and us kids) so we can communicate a little more freely (her hearing aids seem to have failed completely).

Would this be possible? I’m wondering if there is a minimum iPadOS that’s required. If we can do this, she’ll obviously have a ‘new’ - and separate -
messaging facility, but what will I see? Will her messages come through to our normal text chain? How do I choose which method my messages to her go
by (is that possible)? So many questions…

Yes all you need is an AppleId which had to be an email address anyway.

<https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/15b8doz/can_i_use_imessage_on_a_mac_without_having_an/?rdt=65106>

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Cheers, Alan

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On 2024-11-24, Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:

Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:

Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:

I believe this should be possible using an email address…?

I want to find an easier way to keep in touch with mum. She has an older >>> iPad and a dumb phone. She struggles with emails but can text just fine and >>> is ok using the iPad for games and reading emails (she struggles to send >>> them). I’m trying to figure out if we can use her (gmail) email address to
set up a ‘closed network’ (just her and us kids) so we can communicate a
little more freely (her hearing aids seem to have failed completely).

Would this be possible? I’m wondering if there is a minimum iPadOS that’s
required. If we can do this, she’ll obviously have a ‘new’ - and separate -
messaging facility, but what will I see? Will her messages come through to >>> our normal text chain? How do I choose which method my messages to her go >>> by (is that possible)? So many questions…

Yes all you need is an AppleId which had to be an email address anyway.

<https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/15b8doz/can_i_use_imessage_on_a_mac_without_having_an/?rdt=65106>

Yes, she has an Apple ID. So I assume it’ll just need to be turned on (there’s an iMessage switch in messages). How will we know which contact we’re sending to - i.e. how to choose if the recipient device for our text (iMessage) will be her iPad or her dumb phone? So many questions!

Maybe you can setup some suitably named entries in the Contacts app?

--
Cheers, Alan

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Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, she has an Apple ID. So I assume it’ll just need to be turned on (there’s an iMessage switch in messages). How will we know which contact we’re sending to - i.e. how to choose if the recipient device for our text (iMessage) will be her iPad or her dumb phone? So many questions!

Since she doesn't have an iPhone I'm not sure if she can use iMessage with
the phone number from her dumbphone, but she should be able to do it using
the email address of her Apple ID. The same goes for you. ie you'd send an iMessage from your Mac to mum@example.com and it would appear on her iPad (maybe she needs to enable that, I'm not sure). She replies and you get the message on your Mac as mark@example.com (if those are both your Apple IDs)

Theo

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