Are you certain about SMS messages appearing on a desktop (no cellular service) Mac? I have yet to see them on any iMac or non-cellular iPad.
Absolutely positive! I just deleted half a hundred texts from different candidates wanting money.
A late reply to this post, but SMS messages, that is messages to a non-iPhone, only appear on a desktop Mac if Text Message Forwarding is turned On in the iPhone in Settings>Messages. If you have more than one Mac, in this setting you can select which Macs get the forwarded SMS messages.
I must be getting old
I forget all about that switch on the iPhone. and when I checked I found
these settings. But all of my iMessages are synchronized on my iPhone, iPad, Watch, and Mac Studio along with most, but in retrospect I realize perhaps
not all SMS messages.
Then it struck me, the odd device out is the iPad which may or may not have cellular capability. My iPad does have cellular capability and shares the same phone number as the iPhone. (My Apple watch has cellular capabiity as well and I can send and receive messages on it without any help of support from my iPhone, so why isn't the watch a Text Messaging Forwarding option on the iPhone?)
To make a short story longer, on the iPhone, I have now enabled Text Message Forwarding to both my Mac and iPad and I will be monitoring iMessage and SMS texts closely to see the results. i should have a report on my findings in a few days.