Apple’s ecosystem is one of the most advanced in terms of sharing and synchronization. There’s nothing quite like the way your iPhone, iPad, and Mac can communicate and share data. Scanning a photo with your phone and having it immediately be available on your Mac or iPad is the epitome of efficiency. But how far does this convergence go? Can an iPad and iPhone share a phone number?
iPad and iPhone cannot truly share a phone number. The sim card slot on an iPad is there to allow mobile data use, nothing more. However, through Apple’s iOS Continuity Features, it is possible to link your iPhone and iPad in a way that allows calls to your iPhone to also come through on your iPad.
This is not truly sharing the same telephone number, and there is a lot more involved than that. But the way Apple’s ecosystem links all your devices makes it easy to receive, and even make, calls from your iPad if you also have an iPhone and your mobile network operator allows it. A few simple settings will sort it out. Let’s look at why it’s necessary and how to enable this excellent feature.
Why iPad And iPhone Can’t Share A Phone Number
Cellular telephone networks are designed to link your phone number with a sim card directly. The sim card, in turn, is linked to your identity. When you switch on the phone containing your sim card, it authorizes you on the cellular network. The network can then determine how much call time or mobile data you have available to use.
A sim card can be duplicated or cloned, but this is illegal and often causes the original sim card to stop working since your cellular account can only be linked with one sim card at a time. A second sim card connecting to the network with the same account simultaneously causes network errors. Criminals use sim cloning technology for identity theft or to gain access to information like OTPs.
That’s why it is impossible to truly link your telephone number with both an iPhone and an iPad at the same time. Furthermore, an iPad’s sim card slot is explicitly designed to allow a mobile data connection, not really to make and receive calls. Even using a dedicated sim card won’t give you full telephone functionality on an iPad, at least not the way things are set up at the moment.
iOS Continuity: The Phone Sharing Solution (And More)
Apple introduced iOS Continuity to allow advanced sharing features between all Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod Touch, and Apple Watch. The synchronization and sharing features go well beyond just sharing phone calls, but that is one of the most revolutionary aspects of iOS Continuity.
It should be mentioned that Continuity does not truly share your phone number between Apple devices. Rather it allows you to transmit calls and messages between iOS devices, if one of the devices is an iPhone, and if the devices are on the same network and in the same vicinity for Bluetooth connectivity.
iOS Continuity links all your devices that are signed in with your Apple ID and thus linked to your Apple account. For example, let’s say you have an iPhone, an iPad, and a Macbook, all signed in to your Apple ID and connected to the same WiFi network. A call that you receive on your iPhone will automatically be broadcast to your iPad and Mac as well, and you can answer on any of the devices.
You can also make calls in the same way. Using Facetime on your iPad, you can make calls to other people, though it will actually be making the call through your iPhone and its mobile network connection.
The benefits don’t stop with phone calls, either. You can even receive and send SMS messages using iMessage directly from your iPad, and it will send the message through your iPhone as if you are sending it directly from the phone itself. It’s almost seamless and so well implemented that you can hardly tell where the one ends, and the other begins.
Some users claim that this even works when the iPhone is switched off, but Apple has not mentioned that this is the case and tests by other users are inconclusive, so don’t count on it working that way.
How To Turn On Call Sharing For iPad And iPhone
So sharing calls and SMS messages between iOS devices is both possible and excellent. But how can you get it to work? First, you have to ensure that your devices are compatible and meet the following requirements:
- The iPhone must run iOS 8.1 or later.
- The iPad must have at least iOS 8.
- Both devices must be logged in to iCloud with the same Apple ID.
- Facetime must be installed on both devices and logged into the same Apple ID.
- The iPhone and the iPad must both have WiFi turned on and be connected to the same WiFi network.
- The devices must be located close to one another, within Bluetooth range, so that they can easily detect one another.
Once all these requirements are met, simply follow these steps to enable call sharing:
On the iPhone:
- Go to Settings
- Choose “Phone”
- Select “Calls on Other Devices”
- Set the toggle for the “Allow Calls on Other Devices” option to “On.”
On the iPad:
- Go to Settings
- Select “Facetime”
- Set the “Calls from iPhone” toggle to the “On” position.
To share messages, including SMS and iMessage, ensure the same requirements are met and that both devices are signed in to the same Apple ID on iMessage. Then change settings as follows:
On iPad:
- Go to Settings
- Choose “Messages”
- Select “Send & Receive”
On iPhone:
- Go to Settings
- Choose “Messages”
- Select the “Text Message Forwarding” option
- Choose which devices you want to allow access to send and receive messages from your iPhone. All your messages will now be synchronized with those devices.
After following these steps, assuming that you also have your contact list synchronized between both devices, you will be able to make and receive calls and send and receive text messages seamlessly between the two devices.
Conclusion
Though it cannot be called true phone number sharing, Apple’s iOS Continuity feature makes it not only possible but painlessly easy to share phone calls and text messages between your iPhone and iPad. This applies to Mac as well. There are many other features included with iOS Continuity, and it is well worth taking the time to explore them all! It could make your time so much more efficient.
