Can WhatsApp or Telegram Receive Text Messages?

No, neither WhatsApp nor Telegram can receive SMS text messages: both are internet messengers, so texts sent to your number land in Apple’s Messages app instead. That includes the sign-up code WhatsApp or Telegram sends you by SMS. To see your texts in either app, a Shortcuts automation on your iPhone has to pass each new one along.

What you need: an iPhone with the Shortcuts app (it’s already on your phone) and WhatsApp or Telegram signed in. To use Fwrd, you also need iOS 26 or later.

Can WhatsApp receive SMS?

No. WhatsApp sends and receives its own messages over the internet, and SMS never enters the app. WhatsApp’s help page About WhatsApp charges says using WhatsApp needs an internet connection, over mobile data or Wi-Fi.

Texts to your number arrive in Messages, and WhatsApp never sees them. The one SMS WhatsApp cares about is its own registration code. WhatsApp’s registration help page explains that the 6-digit code comes by SMS, or by a phone call if you pick that option. On an iPhone, that text shows up in Messages like any other.

Can Telegram receive SMS?

No. Telegram’s FAQ (read 2026-10-17) calls it a cloud-based messenger, and texts to your number stay in Messages.

Two things in Telegram look like SMS but aren’t:

• Your login code can come inside Telegram. If you’ve used Telegram on another device recently, the FAQ says it may send the login code there, in the chat named Telegram (the one with a blue check), instead of by SMS.
• Some services send their codes to Telegram. A website or app can choose to deliver its verification code through Telegram, into a Verification Codes chat, as the FAQ explains. That’s the service using Telegram instead of SMS. Telegram isn’t reading your texts.

Where texts land, app by app

How to get your texts into WhatsApp

A Message automation in Shortcuts runs when a matching text arrives and hands it to WhatsApp’s Send Message action, which sends it from your personal WhatsApp account to one fixed contact. With Fwrd first, the same text can also reach Telegram, Slack or other destinations.

1. Add WhatsApp in Fwrd. Open Fwrd, tap +, and choose WhatsApp. Under Recipient Reference, enter the number or contact that should get your texts, and save.

2. Create a Message automation. On iOS 27, open Shortcuts, tap Library, then Automation, then +. If you see Describe a shortcut, tap Edit. Tap Automation, then Message. On iOS 26, open the Automation tab, tap +, and choose Message.

3. Choose which texts to send. Choose Message Contains (on iOS 27, change Sender to Message), then type a word your texts contain, such as code. Or type a single space to send any text with one.

4. Make it run without asking. On iOS 27, tap the arrow beside the trigger and check that Confirm Before Run is off. Under ⓘ, then Privacy, check that Allow Running When Locked is on. On iOS 26, choose Run Immediately, then tap Next and Create New Shortcut.

5. Add Fwrd’s action. (On iOS 26, tap Add Action first.) Search for Forward, add Forward Message to All Destinations, and set its Message to Shortcut Input (on iOS 26, Shortcut Input, then Message).

6. Add WhatsApp’s Send Message. Search for WhatsApp, tap the WhatsApp app, then choose Send Message, not Send Message via WhatsApp. Set its Message to Fwrd’s output. Tap Recipients and pick the contact you saved in Fwrd; if it has more than one WhatsApp number, tap › and pick one. Tap the tick, then tap back to save (Done on iOS 26).

7. That’s it. New texts with your word now go to that WhatsApp chat on their own.

Who sent it: Fwrd can add a From: line naming the sender (switch on Include Who Sent It in Fwrd’s Settings, then choose Sender on Fwrd’s action), and the same text can reach other places from one automation. The WhatsApp guide shows every tap, and Fwrd’s WhatsApp page answers the common questions.

How to get your texts into Telegram

Telegram works differently. Fwrd posts each matching text itself, through a bot you own, so no Telegram action is needed in Shortcuts.

1. Make a bot. In Telegram, send /newbot to @BotFather and copy the token it gives you.
2. Find your chat ID. Open your bot’s chat, tap Start, then read your chat ID from Telegram’s getUpdates page.
3. Add Telegram in Fwrd. Paste the token and chat ID, tap Send Test Message, then save.
4. Build the same automation. Follow steps 2 to 5 above, then tap back to save (Done on iOS 26). That’s it: new texts with your word now go to your Telegram chat on their own.

The Telegram guide shows every tap, and how to forward iPhone SMS to Telegram covers groups, filters and the bot in more detail. A filter on the Telegram destination can keep only texts with words you choose, texts that look like a verification code, or texts that arrive at certain hours. Fwrd’s Telegram page covers groups and other questions.

Fwrd works with eight destinations in all: Email, another phone or iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram and your own webhook.

What these setups can’t do

• Only new texts. Anything that arrived before you set it up stays in Messages.
• One WhatsApp contact per action. WhatsApp’s Send Message goes to the one contact you pick. Add another Send Message for a second person.
• The iPhone does the work. It has to be on and online, over Wi-Fi or mobile data, when each text arrives. After a restart, unlock it once before forwarding starts again.
• Text only, one way. Pictures don’t forward, and replying in WhatsApp or Telegram doesn’t reach the person who texted you.
• Your personal account. WhatsApp sends from your own account on the iPhone. No WhatsApp Business account or Meta API key is involved.