Does my phone have to be turned on in order to use iMessage on my laptop?

[iMore Question]

Does my phone have to be turned on in order to use iMessage on my laptop? I am attempting to use iMessage right now, but my phone is on the blink. It doesn't seem to be working. No recent texts are being retrieved and no messages are going out.

 

[Ledsteplin]

Re: phone on or off for iMessage?

Welcome to iMore! You don't need the iPhone on for iMessage to work on your laptop. Is it a Macbook? It might require the iPhone be on to message SMS /MMS. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
This may help:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202549

 

[Ecm]

Re: phone on or off for iMessage?

It might require the iPhone be on to message SMS /MMS. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

You're correct. I saw this post, then asked my daughter to check. With her iPhone powered off, she could use iMessage, but could not send SMS. (She does have the text message forwarding enabled.)