Group chat replies on iPhone vs. iPad

Hello, I’ve noticed something weird that I’d love to get some advice about. Between my iPhone (12 Pro, iOS 18.5), Wi-fi only iPad (Pro 5th gen, iPadOS 18.5), and MacBook (Air M1, macOS Sequoia 15.5), I don’t see all the replies. It’s not critical, because I can use my phone to see all the activity in the group chat, but it’s sort of annoying. Text message forwarding from my phone to the MBA and iPad is On for both, and the toggles to turn off only appear when Enable Messages in iCloud is unchecked in the MBA app settings and the iPad iCloud settings.

My best guess is that it has something to do with cellular. I remember my kids being able to send and receive texts with iMessage users only, on their wi-fi only iPads. I was able to text anyone, because I had an iPhone (with cellular, of course). One of the kids got an Apple watch, and they could text anyone with it, but still could text only iMessage users on the iPad.

My question is: Is there some configuration I can setup between my phone, MBA, and iPad, so that I can see all the activity in the group chat? Of course I’ve restarted all the devices and synced messages in iCloud on all of them, too. Maybe my devices are just too old, because they can’t upgrade to the latest software versions? In my example photos, the two people use iMessage, but we all have green bubbles between us because we have an Android user in the group. That’s probably not relevant, but wanted to give all the information I could.

Thanks for any advice you might have for me! First photo is from the iPad, second is from the iPhone.

Jess

[Edited by Moderator]