Handoff Compatibility Question
So, I've read that my Mac (early 2011 Macbook Pro 15") shouldn't be compatible with handoff/SMS from an iOS device, due to lack of BLE. The settings menu seems to confirm this (lack of "allow handoff" option in general)
However, there's two oddities...one being that when I search handoff in the settings menu, it highlights the "general" section and says the setting is in there (suggesting it's buried, but just not shown in the UI). Plus, when I relaunched messages just now, it asked me to set up SMS forwarding...I did, and now handoff for SMS works (I can send messages via text message to my friend on an Android phone using Messages).
Is the SMS thing available on computers where the rest of Handoff isn't, or did I stumble onto something I shouldn't have been able to? Or is there some way I'm not seeing to actually get handoff working on my Mac?
Thanks, everybody!
Posted Oct 27, 2014, 3:16 AM UTC
SMS relay isn't actually part of Handoff. All the features introduced with iOS 8 and Yosemite for seamless interoperability between devices are grouped under the umbrella term "Continuity" but some features use different technologies. Handoff is BTLE, call forwarding to iPads and Macs uses the local network, and... well I'm not sure what SMS Relay is carried on but it's not Bluetooth - it still works if you disable Bluetooth.
Awesome. Very informative response. Thanks so much for sharing.