If you have a phone and want to remove your phone number from messages and FaceTime, here are some tips:
- Open the Messages app on your phone.
- Tap on the three lines in the top left corner of the screen (the one that says “Message History”).
- Scroll down to the bottom of the list and tap on Remove Number.
- Enter your new number in the text field and hit OK.
If you have an iPhone and a Mac or iPad, you can link your phone number to your iCloud account to send and receive calls and messages from the same number on both devices.
Add a New or Existing Number on iOS
You’ll need to make sure your devices are signed in to the same iCloud account for everything to sync correctly.
The process is the same for all iOS devices, but you’ll need to enable your existing number on your iPhone first. On your phone, open the Settings app.
Tap on the category marked “Messages.”
Make sure you’re signed in and have iMessage turned on. Scroll down and tap “Send & Receive.”
There may be a prompt here asking you to sign in with your Apple ID to use it with iMessage. If so, sign in.
Once you’re signed in, make sure your phone number is checked under “You can receive iMessages to and reply from.” If it is, you’re all good for iMessage.
FaceTime still needs setup though. Go back to the main Settings window, and tap on FaceTime settings.
Make sure you’re using your Apple ID for FaceTime, and enable your number under “You can be reached by FaceTime at.”
Now that your iPhone is sharing its phone number, you’ll be able to enable the same settings on your iPad or iPod Touch to sync messages between devices.
Add Your Phone Number on macOS
Now that your phone is set up, you can move over to your Mac. Open up Messages, and you’ll be asked to sign in if you’ve never used it before. Open up Messages preferences by pressing Command+Comma or by selecting “Preferences” from the “Messages” dropdown in the top menu bar.
If you set up your phone correctly, you should see your phone number under “You can be reached for messages at.” It will likely be enabled by default.
This will send your Mac all iMessages sent to your phone number. This doesn’t cover text messages though; for that, you’ll need to enable text message forwarding.
RELATED: How to Set up Text Message Forwarding on Your Mac or iPad
For FaceTime, the process is the same. Open up the FaceTime settings, and you’ll see the same window with a checkbox next to your phone number.
This will link your phone and Mac for FaceTime calls, but if you want to receive cellular calls on your Mac, you’ll need to enable phone call forwarding.
RELATED: How to Make and Answer Phone Calls on Your Mac
Remove a Number
To remove a number, uncheck the box next to it in the iMessage and FaceTime preferences on the device you want to be removed. This will stop you from receiving future calls and texts on that device.
If you’d like to remove it from your iCloud account altogether, you’ll need to turn off from your iPhone. If you don’t have the phone (for example, if you sold it without wiping it first or if it was stolen), you can change your Apple ID password to force the phone to sign out. Though in the case of a stolen phone, you can always wipe it remotely with Find My iPhone, which will solve the problem in the process.
