iMessage on a non-iPhone IMEI

thinkpad · November 16, 2019

So on a iPhone 7 plus I was getting iMessage even when the wrong IMEI was on the account FaceTime and iMessage was working except group iMessages. The carrier was AT&T, kinda cool but the hardware was a real iPhone but on AT&T side it was a Samsung GS9 with the IMEI

I have no idea how this worked but it did

dalekphalm · November 16, 2019

I don't think that the IMEI has anything to do with iMessage.

It works in combination with your AppleID, and with the registered phone number with iCloud (which is likely pulled the first time you launch iMessage and send a message on your phone).