Make and Receive Cellular Phone Calls from your iPad

I have been playing with iOS 8 on my iPad and iPhone for some time now. Without a doubt one of the most useful features released with iOS 8 is Continuity. And with it, the possibility to make and receive cellular phone calls from the iPad through the iPhone.

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With Continuity, your iPhone can be ringing downstairs or in the kitchen. It does not matter. You can pick up the call from your iPad!
You can also make phone calls from your iPad. It is very, very cool!!

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Requirements

So what do you need to use Continuity?

You need an iPhone and an iPad running iOS 8 or later. In this case, I tried it with iOS 8.1 on both devices. You also need to have both iPhone and iPad connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Preparation

How does your iPad know when your iPhone is ringing?
The key to all this is your Apple ID or iCloud account.

Before you can make and receive calls on your iPad, you have to make sure your iPad is signed in to the same iCloud account as your iPhone.

iCloud Configuration on iPhone

On your iPhone tap on Settings > iCloud and take note of your Apple ID. The Apple ID is usually an email address of the form “[email protected]” or any other valid email address.

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Tap on Settings > FaceTime and make sure FaceTime is enabled and using the same Apple ID as iCloud.

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iCloud Configuration on iPad

On your iPad tap on Settings > iCloud and verify your iCloud configuration matches the Apple ID you have on your iPhone.

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If your iCloud is not configured, enter the same Apple ID and password you saw on your phone. Then tap Sign In.

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In a similar way tap on Settings > FaceTime and verify your Apple ID matches the one you have on your iPhone.

If FaceTime is not configured, enter the same Apple ID and password you saw on your phone. Then tap Sign In.

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Once iCloud and FaceTime are configured and match the settings on your iPhone you are ready to make and receive calls.

Receiving a Call

Make sure both iPhone and iPad are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Call your iPhone from another phone (i.e. Home phone). Your iPhone will start ringing and maybe with a delay of a second, so will your iPad. On your iPad, tap on the Accept button. The call will be established through your iPhone.

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Making a Call

Open the Contacts App. Choose a contact and tap on its number. This will initiate a call to that person from your iPad using your iPhone.

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Questions? Thoughts?

I enjoyed making and receiving phone calls on my iPad using Continuity. Although I have to admit the downside is that it quickly drained the battery on my iPhone. Perhaps a good idea is to leave your phone charging while you make calls from your iPad.

Did you set up iCloud and FaceTime? Did you try making calls?

Let me know by posting a comment below.

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