If you want to get to the question, skip ahead. If you want to tell me why I’m doing this all wrong, you can read these first couple paragraphs to see how I got to this point.
I can’t remember the exact reasoning for my decisions over the years, but I have two Apple IDs. My original ID, which started back when it was just for purchases via iTunes, and a second ID created years later that’s used for all of the syncing and other services that can be tied to your Apple ID these days. Well, almost all those services.
My original Apple ID is tied to my primary email account. For that reason, it’s the account I’ve also had associated with my phone number for iMessage since that first became a thing. The reasoning there was that someone who had either my email address or phone number could get me via iMessage, so it needed to be the primary email account most friends and family already had for me.
Now we have Apple Pay via iMessage, but I’ve discovered iMessage needs to use the same Apple ID as the iCloud account that’s signed into the device to allow Apple Pay.
So the question: I’m willing to give up the advantage of people being able to iMessage me via my email address—I seriously doubt that’s ever actually happened—and switch my iMessage over to the same ID I use for iCloud and everything else on my phone (other than my purchases), but will this break everything?!
My fear is that for anyone who’s ever sent me an iMessage, behind the scenes, their devices are reaching out to that Apple ID, not necessarily the phone number attached. So that Apple ID will still exist, but if I’m not signed into that account for iMessage on my device, their messages won’t get to me.