# Does this iPad app exist? (Texting)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-ipad-app-exist-texting/650704>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 18, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-ipad-app-exist-texting/650704 "2013-02-18T15:31:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-ipad-app-exist-texting/650704/1 "2013-02-18T15:31:15Z")

</div>

I have a non-smartphone and an iPad mini. It’s a PITA to text on my phone. What I’m looking for is an app that I can add to my iPad that allows me to get the texts that are sent to my phone and text from my iPad, using my phone number as the contact number. I’ve looked at texting apps, but they give you a new phone number. I basically just want to be able to read and send texts as if I was doing it from my phone.

Does this app exist?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-ipad-app-exist-texting/650704/2 "2013-02-18T15:48:50Z")

</div>

I believe Apple’s own iMessage app will do that. I’m not 100% positive it’ll work in your exact setup exactly like you want, but assuming you have a recent enough version of iOS, it’s free and built-in, so it’s worth a try.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-ipad-app-exist-texting/650704/3 "2013-02-18T15:56:39Z")

</div>

I think my phone has to be an iPhone to use iMessage like that. Or I may be totally missing how to set it up for SMS.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-ipad-app-exist-texting/650704/4 "2013-02-18T16:04:04Z")

</div>

You could very well be right. But I did notice [here](https://www.apple.com/ios/messages/) that “Any phone number and all email addresses associated with your Apple ID will be displayed” (and can then theoretically be set up with iMessage). So you can go into your Apple ID preferences online and add in that phone, then see if you can select it in iMessage.

Again, I’m not positive at all this work, as I’ve never done this set up.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-ipad-app-exist-texting/650704/5 "2013-02-18T16:59:21Z")

</div>

If that doesn’t work you may want to set up a free google voice account and use that for texting on both devices. The iPad has a google voice app for managing your texts to/from that account and there are howtos on the web on how to send/receive texts from a dumb phone via google voice.