Is there a way I can send texts and receive texts from android phones on my Apple Cellular Ultra Watch when I leave my phone at home

dws51 wrote:

That is correct. My Apple Ultra watch has an active cellular connection with T-Mobile. When I leave my iPhone at home, on and connected to both cellular and wi-Fi, my Ultra watch works great for calls and iMessages, but not for android texts. Is this the norm, or do I need to adjust some settings?

thanks

In theory, you should be receiving calls and SMS messages over the internet from the paired iPhone.

The Watch only connects to Cellular Data, not Voice and Text, so all voice calls and sms messages from non-Apple devices need to arrive at the iPhone first and then be forwarded to the Watch from there over the internet.

As explained in the second footnote here ➜ Use your Apple Watch without your iPhone nearby - Apple Support

 To receive SMS, MMS, or push notifications from third-party apps on your cellular Apple Watch, your paired iPhone must be powered on and connected to Wi-Fi or cellular, but it doesn't need to be nearby. You also need to be signed in to iMessage on your iPhone to use Messages on your watch.

Also check that Wi-Fi calling is turned on for the watch. On your iPhone, go to Settings ➜ Phone, tap Wi-Fi Calling, then turn on both Wi-Fi Calling on This iPhone and Add Wi-Fi Calling For Other Devices.

I would still check with T-Mobile is everything is correctly provisioned however.

The OP doesn't suggest they want to pair their Apple Watch with an Android phone. They want to know why they can't send and/or receive SMS messages from Android phones if they leave their phone at home (which would logically be an iPhone), with cellular service on the phone.

I'm going to assume you have an iPhone, which your cellular Apple Watch is paired with? You should be able to receive and send SMS messages to and from Android users, if you leave your iPhone at home.

Since you don't seem to be able to, you need to contact your carrier who likely hasn't provisioned your watch correctly in their system. They are the ones who control SMS messaging.

One thing you can try with your iphone...

Settings, Messages, Turn off iMessage 

Settings, Face Time, Turn off Face Time 

Restart the phone. 

Settings, Messages, Turn on iMessage, SMS, MMS 

Settings, Messages, send & Receive, Start new conversations from,  select your Apple ID which should now be there. 

Settings, Face Time, Turn on Face Time 

  See if that affects the Watch SMS capability

Ohh, sorry, completely misread the question.

In theory, the Apple Watch would need to have active cellular service to receive messages and calls from Android devices when away from the paired iPhone. Or have the iPhone be turned on a connected to cellular or wi-fi, and the watch be connected to Wi-Fi.

click here ➜ Use your Apple Watch without your iPhone nearby - Apple Support

No. You can't even setup an Apple Watch without an iPhone? How did you manage this?

You cannot link the Apple Watch to an Android phone in any way.

No need to apologize. I can't count how many times I've read a post and missed the mark, by a long shot!

This is something as I mentioned above should be addressed with your carrier. My guess is something isn't provisioned correctly for your Apple Watch on their end.