Are messages between iPhone, iPad and Mac supposed to work like this?

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if it's just me. I have an iPhone as well as an iPad 2. I liked the idea that I could use iMessage on my iPad, however when I message someone it starts a second chat on their phone showing it's from my AppleID email address versus my phone number. If they reply to that chat I get the message everywhere, but if later in the day they've closed all windows and then message my phone #, I only get it on my phone.

It does this as well with Messages for Mac. I had my friend add my email address to my existing contact in his phone to see if that would keep it all together but it still doesn't. He just messaged me I assume on my phone number so it only went to my phone.

It seems like that's normal behaviors since the iPad and Mac can't receive messages sent to a phone number, but isn't that sort of a useless app then? Like I can only keep chats going if I start them on my Mac or iPad? If I want to continue from my phone to my Mac I am basically starting a new chat on my friends phone which seems to be annoying everyone since they don't know where to message me.

On your iPhone, go into Settings -> Messages, and select Receive At. Your Apple ID should be filled in, and below that you can add the email address that you use for the iPad iMessage app. In my case it's the same address as my Apple ID.
That's how mine is configured and hopefully should work on yours too.

Hope this helps,

Cheers

Hugh

I'm having similar issues. I think this is an issue with Messages on iOS and OS X. After I changed the receive at address incoming messages generally show up on all devices. I say generally because they don't always show up. However, friends with my email address in my contact info still get multiple threads on their phones. One from my phone number and one from my email depending on point of origin. It's the same behaviour when someone has multiple mobile numbers. Messages to each number result in separate threads. Also messages received from my email don't show up with my name as the sender just my email address. It's irritating to say the least.