How to Unlink iPad and iPhone Text Messages

Your Apple ID controls all your Apple devices if you sign into the account across all your devices. The advantage is the ability to manage all your iDevices under a single account but can be frustrating when you keep receiving the same notifications across all the linked devices. This may lead you to want to unlink your devices from your Apple account and manage them separately. Well, in this article, you will learn how to unlink iPad and iPhone text messages to stop receiving your iPhone text messages and notifications on your iPad.

Meanwhile, if you don’t want to use a different Apple ID on both your iPad and iPhone there is a way around this. You can either disable the SMS relay or sign out of the iMessage app on your iPad completely.

Disabling the iPad SMS relay will unlink your iPhone from the device and stop sending the same notifications and messages to your iPad once you have received it on your iPhone. Also, another way to sort this out is to sign out of the iMessage app on your iPad so that the Apple ID account is only linked to your iPhone iMessage app.

How to Unlink iPad and iPhone Text Messages

How to Unlink iPad and iPhone Text Messages

To stop receiving the same text messages from your iPhone to your iPad you must unlink both devices. Meanwhile, there are a few ways to do this. You can disable the SMS relay or sign out of the iMessage app on your iPad.

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Disable and Enable iMessage

You should first consider disabling the iMessage app on your device and re-enable it. However, this helps to fix the glitch if you can’t send and receive messages on your iPhone.

  • Open your iPhone “Settings.”
  • Scroll down and click on “Messages.”
  • Locate “iMessage” and toggle off the green icon.
  • Tap on the “grey” icon on the “iMessage” app again to re-enable it.

Sign Out iMessage on your iPad

You don’t have to remove your Apple ID from your iPad to put an end to the text messages from your iPhone. You just need to sign out the iMessage app to put an end to it.

  • Go to your iPhone Settings.
  • Tap “Messages.”
  • Select “Send & Receive.”
  • Click on your “Apple ID.”
  • Choose “Sign Out.”

You will be logged out of the iMessage app on your iPad. Once you are logged out you will stop receiving text messages from your iPhone.

Disable iPhone to iPad SMS Sync

You need to stop your iPad from synchronizing with your iPhone. If this is done the two devices will stop communicating and the sync will stop pulling your text messages from your iPhone.

  • Tap on your iPhone “Settings” app.
  • Scroll down and tap on “Messages.”
  • Select “Text Forwarding Messages.”
  • Turn “Off” the option to forward your text messages to your iPad.
  • Wait for a couple of seconds for your iPad to pop up the authorization code to disable the feature.
  • Once the code appears type the code and wait for the text forwarding message option to turn grey (disable).

Disable Messages from your iCloud

With your iCloud active on both your iPad and iPhone you stand a great chance to sync all your text messages on your iPhone and iPad simultaneously. So, it’s advisable to disable it on iCloud to stop it from backing it up and showing it on your other iDevices such as iPad.

  • Open “Settings” on your “iPhone.”
  • Tap on your “Name” or “Profile name.”
  • Click on “iCloud.”
  • Scroll down to “Apps using iCloud” and tap “Show All.”
  • Scroll down and click on “Messages in iCloud.”
  • Disable “Use on this iPad” to restrict your iPad from receiving your iPhone messages from iCloud.

Turn Off Handoff

You can find this under “AirPlay & Handoff. This allows you to start something on one of your devices and complete it on the other device. This was to make things easier for you but since you don’t like the way your iPad receives your text messages from your iPhone then you can disconnect or unlink both devices without logging out of your Apple ID on your iPad.

  • Open the “Settings” app on your “iPhone.”
  • Tap on “General.”
  • Locate and click on “AirPlay & Handoff.”
  • Toggle of “Handoff.”

This guide explains how to unlink iPad and iPhone text messages using different methods without logging out of your iCloud or Apple account.

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