Now, you should actually be set up and ready to go. Under the General tab in preferences, you can decide how long messages are kept, your notification sound, and more. For example, the iMessage tab in preferences has a Send Read Receipts option that some people like to use. Pro tip - There are some other customization options that may be of interest during setup.The other option, Always Ask, will ask you every time. The default, Contacts Only, will only share your name and photo with your contacts. Finally, there is a Share Automatically option.For example, I had to change my first name from Joseph to Joe because I go by Joe.

On the final page, you’ll get to select your first and last name.

Hit Not Now to decline and Use to make this your default Apple ID profile photo.

iMessage will ask if you want to use this photo everywhere.

Select what you want and hit Continue again. The next screen will give you more photo stylization options. You’ll get a couple of suggestions, or you can hit the Customize button to use Memoji, your own photo, or something else.

The first thing it’ll ask you to do is select a photo.

In the General tab, click Set up Name and Photo Sharing.

With Messages open, click Messages in the top left corner and hit Preferences.

It’s not terribly difficult, but it will help complete the process of connecting iMessage to Mac. Those setting up iMessage for the first time have a few more things they can do to set up their iMessage account. To turn off iMessage, simply go repeat the steps above and untick the Enable Messages in iCloud box. From now on, your Messages app will act as your iMessage client.

That should be it, your Messages app is now connected to iMessage.

Sync messages - If you already use iMessage on other devices, tap the Sync Now button while you’re in the to sync all of your messages.

Make sure you look that over before exiting the menu. You can select your Apple ID email or your phone number.

Finally, at the bottom, there is a Start new conversations from: dropdown box.

Finally, tick the Enable Messages in iCloud box.

Select the iMessage tab in the next window.

In the top left corner, tap Messages and then Preferences.Next, open the Messages app either from the dock or from Launchpad.

You can do this by clicking the Apple icon in the top left corner, clicking System Preferences, clicking the Apple ID option, and then following the instructions there. Sign in to your Apple ID on your Mac if you haven’t already.Fortunately, Apple makes this super easy to do on Mac. This part should only take you a minute or two at most.

How to link my imessage to my mac