Can a Samsung phone connect to an Apple computer?

5 replies

Level 9 (55,707 points)

Oct 13, 2026 4:34 PM in response to Wahine12

Wahine12 wrote:

To download pictures. Check my messages. Use the phone.

The integration between Android phones and Macs is not as close as the integration between iPhones and Macs, or even the integration between Android phones and Windows-based PCs.

macOS has a feature called iPhone Cellular Calls (Make and receive phone calls on Mac, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro - Apple Support) that lets it make and receive cellular calls with the aid of an iPhone, but the feature doesn't support making and receiving calls with the aid of an Android phone.

Text Message Forwarding and Messages in iCloud (Forward text messages from your iPhone to other devices - Apple Support) likewise assume that you have Apple devices. A Mac does not need the help of an iPhone or an Android phone to exchange iMessages with other Apple devices, over the Internet. But it does require help from an iPhone to send and receive SMS, MMS, and RCS messages. Those are "cell phone things", and Macs do not have the hardware to communicate directly with cellular networks.

If you're taking about checking e-mail messages, that should be a piece of cake. Assuming that you are using IMAP-style email (where the master copies reside on the provider's servers), you could connect a Mac and an Android phone to the same email accounts to access the same emails (and associated calendar entries).

And while Android phones cannot use iCloud Photos, there are other ways of getting photos from them to Macs. Such as importing photos over a cable, or using Google Photos on the Android phone and the Google Photos web site on the Mac.