How to activate an iPhone on Wi-Fi only for Facetime & iMessage

[christian2001]

My wife and I are on different sides of the mobile phone fence. She is iOS (a 6S) and I am Android. This works out fine for both of us; I like Android, she has the ability to Facetime with her kids and grandkids. All good.

Now here is my problem. She will be going on a trip with her daughters in November, and we would like to Facetime each other while she is gone. I have a 4th gen iPod Touch which I have used in the past. But, it?s so small. Now I have access to an iPhone 6+ without a SIM. I have set it up for myself; I?m logged in to my iCloud account and I use it around the house on Wi-Fi (especially as a reference when she has an iOS question). But, in Settings, iMessage and Facetime are both stuck at ?Waiting for activation??. If I turn either off and then back on, then I get a message that ?An error occurred during activation. Try again.?

I?m thinking that I need to put the SIM card from my Android phone in the iPhone to get things working, but I?m worried that something would/could mess up my SMS messages on my Android phone. So, does anyone have any suggestions for me?

 

[Just_Me_D]

According to Apple, "If you're using an iPhone, you'll need SMS messaging to activate your phone number with iMessage and FaceTime."

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201422

 

[SwitchBeach]

How about just using Skype instead of Facetime? And just use your regular SMS on your phone instead of iMessage.

 

[comiken205]

According to Apple, "If you're using an iPhone, you'll need SMS messaging to activate your phone number with iMessage and FaceTime."

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201422

Do what I did for my son. Activated the iOS device, activated Facetime and iMessage. The following day I reactivated his android. No issues so far.

 

[christian2001]

How about just using Skype instead of Facetime? And just use your regular SMS on your phone instead of iMessage.

I have two reasons for not wanting to go the Skype route. The first is that she know Facetime and I don't want the task of teaching her a new app. Second, she might only have access to Wi-Fi at times, and while that would be fine for Skype, it wouldn't work for SMS. There are also the new offerings from Google (Allo & Duo), but once again she wouldn't want to learn a new way of doing things when Facetime/iMessages work just fine for her.

 

[christian2001]

Do what I did for my son. Activated the iOS device, activated Facetime and iMessage. The following day I reactivated his android. No issues so far.

Is this as easy as swapping the SIM card, or is there more to worry about?

 

[comiken205]

Is this as easy as swapping the SIM card, or is there more to worry about?

Each of my phones had their own sim card. But I imagine swapping and then activating would do the trick.