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Send and receive messages on iPad

Use the Messages app to send and receive texts, photos, videos, and audio messages.

The Messages list on the left and a conversation on the right. Below the text field, from left to right, are buttons to add content and effects to your messages.

Tip: Send a message from whichever device is closest to you, then use Handoff to continue the conversation elsewhere.

Send a message

You can send a text message to one or more people to start a conversation.

Tap at the top of the screen to start a new message, or tap an existing message.
Enter the phone number, contact name, or Apple ID of each recipient. Or, tap , then choose contacts.
Tap the text field, type your message, then tap to send.
- A blue send button indicates the message will be sent with iMessage; a green send button indicates the message will be sent with SMS/MMS, or your cellular service.
- An alert appears if a message can’t be sent. Tap the alert to try sending the message again.

Tip: Rather than typing every letter of your message, tap to dictate text.

To view conversation details, tap the name or phone number at the top of the screen. You can tap the contact to edit the contact card, share your location, view attachments, leave a group conversation, and more.

To return to the Messages list from a conversation, tap or swipe from the left edge.

To exchange messages with someone who doesn’t use an iPhone, set up text message forwarding on your iPhone.

Continue a conversation

When someone sends you a message for the first time, a conversation opens. If you’ve interacted with that person in Messages before, their message is added to the end of the earlier conversation.

In the Messages list, tap the conversation that you want to participate in.
To look for contacts and content in conversations, tap the search field above the Messages lists. (You may need to swipe down to reveal the search field.) The search field also opens suggested contacts, links, photos, and more.
Tap the text field, then type your message. To replace text with emoji, tap or , then tap each highlighted word.
Tap to send your message.

To let your recipients know when you read their messages, go to Settings > Messages, then turn on Send Read Receipts.

Tip: To see what time a message was sent or received, drag the message bubble to the left.

Reply to a specific message in a conversation

You can respond to a specific message inline in group or individual conversations to improve clarity and help keep the conversation organized.

In a conversation, touch and hold a message, then tap Reply .
Write your response, then tap .

Tip: You can quickly reply to messages with a Tapback expression (for example, a thumbs-up or a heart). Double-tap the message bubble that you want to respond to, then select a Tapback.

People can respond inline as long as they’re using an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac and have iMessage turned on.

Use Siri to send and receive messages

Siri can read your incoming messages out loud to you, and you can speak a reply for Siri to send. Learn more about what Siri can do on iPad.

Siri: Say something like:

“Send a message to Eliza saying how about tomorrow”
“Read my last message from Bob”
“Reply that’s great news”

You can set up Siri to automatically send a message after it has been read back to you. If you want to skip the confirmation step when sending messages, go to Settings > Siri & Search > Automatically Send Messages.

WARNING: For important information about avoiding distractions while driving, see safety information for iPad.

Send a message to a business

Some businesses allow you to communicate with them directly to ask questions, resolve issues, get advice on what to buy, make purchases with Apple Pay, and more.

Search for the business you want to communicate with using Maps, Safari, Search, or Siri.
Start a conversation by tapping a messaging link in the search results—the appearance of the link varies, and might look like a button, a text link, or the company logo.
You can send a message to some businesses from their website or app. See the Apple Support article How to use Messages for Business.

Note: Messages sent to participating businesses appear in dark gray to distinguish them from messages sent using iMessage (in blue) and SMS/MMS messages (in green).

Send a recorded audio message

Instead of writing a text message, you can quickly record an audio message that can be played right in the Messages conversation.

Audio recording is an iMessage app. In a Messages conversation, tap to show the app icons below the text field, tap , then do one of the following:

To record and review before sending: Tap to record, then tap it again to stop recording. Tap to review, then tap to send the recording or to cancel.
To record a message and send it immediately: Hold .

Note: Your audio message disappears from your conversation two minutes after you send it, unless you tap Keep. Recipients can still play your recording. To always keep audio messages, go to Settings > Messages > Expire (below Audio Messages), then tap Never.

To make an audio or video call instead of sending a message, you can switch to FaceTime . In a Messages conversation, tap .

Listen or reply to a recorded audio message

Raise iPad to your ear to play incoming audio messages.
Raise it again to reply.

To turn this feature on or off, go to Settings > Messages, then turn off Raise to Listen.

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iPad User Guide