gdgt

So we had a question (gdgt.com­/question­/imessage­-how­-to­-properly­-receive...) about this a while ago but I just found some new information. gdgt won't let me answer a question multiple times so I made a new discussion thread for it.

First, make sure that on your iPhone you can receive messages at both your phone number AND your email address.

Now, if you go to Settings -> Messages -> Receive At -> Caller ID, you can set your Caller ID to your email address instead of your phone number. This way, when someone sends an iMessage to your phone number, the first message will go only to your iPhone (as opposed to your iPad or iPod touch). But, when you reply to that message, the person on the other end will receive your reply from your email address instead of your phone number, so when they reply again, their second message will go to all your devices.

Edit: you'll have to start a new conversation with the person in order for them to receive your message from your email address. If you just reply it sounds like it will be sent from the same ID that they sent the first message to (in this case, your phone number).

It's not a perfect solution in that their first message will still only go to your phone (unless you message them before they message you), but it does solve the problem of moving your contacts from using your phone number to using your email address.

Source: www.idownloadblog.com­/2011­/10­/22­/receive­-imessages...