FaceTime User Guide

With FaceTime for Mac, users can benefit from live discussions on an iPad, iPod, iPhone or Mac with a built-in camera. It is a free and very handy video conferencing tool for Mac and other Apple products. In October of the same year, Apple released the Mac OS X version of FaceTime, giving Mac users the ability to communicate with iPhone devices using this application. All Mac devices with Mac OS X Lion and onwards would have FaceTime included for free. The success of FaceTime in the iPhone 4 and Mac led to the release of its version for the iPad. It seems more than a little odd to us that Apple hasn't bothered to make FaceTime compatible with its own longstanding desktop video chat service, iChat, but we've at least supposed that it's an. To have a FaceTime call with one other person, you need to have a Mac with OS X Lion 10.7 or later, a broadband Internet connection, and a built-in or connected microphone or camera. Or use your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. To call a group of people, follow the steps in Use Group FaceTime on Mac.

Before you can make or receive FaceTime calls or phone calls on your Mac, see the following requirements.

What you need to make FaceTime calls

To make FaceTime audio and video calls on your Mac (OS X 10.9 or later required), you must:

• Be connected to the internet

• Be signed in to FaceTime with your Apple ID

  If you don’t have an Apple ID, go to the Apple ID account website to sign up for one for free.

• Have a built-in or connected microphone; for FaceTime video calls, you also need a built-in or connected camera

See Make calls in FaceTime on Mac.

What others need to receive your FaceTime calls

The person you’re making a FaceTime video or audio call to must be signed in to FaceTime and have any of the following:

• A Mac with OS X 10.9.2 or later, and a built-in or connected microphone

• An iOS device with iOS 7 or later or an iPadOS device

Important: To make and receive FaceTime calls with multiple people (Group FaceTime), you and the people you’re calling must be using the macOS Mojave 10.14.3 Supplemental Update or later, iOS 12.1.4 or later, or iPadOS. This feature may not be available in all countries or regions. See Make a Group FaceTime call on Mac and the Apple Support article About the security content of macOS Mojave 10.14.3 Supplemental Update.

What you need to make and receive phone calls on your Mac

To make and receive phone calls on your Mac (OS X 10.9 or later required), make sure of the following:

• Your iPhone has iOS 8 or later installed. See the Apple Support article Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

• Your iPhone and Mac are on the same Wi-Fi network and connected to the internet. See Connect your Mac to the internet using Wi-Fi.

• Your iPhone and Mac are signed in to iCloud and FaceTime using the same Apple ID. See Set up iCloud, Sign in to or out of FaceTime, and the Apple Support article Use Continuity to connect your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch.

• Your iPhone and Mac have Wi-Fi Calling turned on. Wi-Fi calling isn’t available on some Mac models. See Set up your iPhone and Mac for phone calls.

See Make and receive phone calls in FaceTime on Mac.

Facetime For Mac Os X 10.6

If you have hearing or speech difficulties, or want to call someone who does, you can use Real-Time Text (RTT) for your phone calls, if your carrier supports it.

Note: To make or receive an RTT call, you must be using macOS Mojave 10.14.2 or later with Wi-Fi Calling through iPhone with iOS 12.1.1 or later. This feature is not available in all countries or regions or supported by all carriers. Depending on your network environment, an RTT call may be downgraded to a TTY call.

See Make and receive RTT phone calls in FaceTime on Mac.

Facetime Download For Mac

Apple has released FaceTime for Mac in its Mac App Store today, allowing any Mac OS X user to chat with friends and family on their iPhone 4 or iPod Touch. The app, which has been in beta testing since October, is now available as a $0.99 download. The price, although affordable, is somewhat surprising considering that FaceTime’s mobile counterpart – a built-in feature in Apple’s mobile handhelds (iPhone 4, and yes, even the iPod Touch) is free.

Is it greedy or is it genius for Apple to sell FaceTime for Mac instead of give it away as a free download? And what does this mean for Apple’s iChat?

Should Apple Charge for FaceTime?

During FaceTime for Mac’s beta period the app was free, which is why so many users were surprised this morning when the new, final version launched with a small price tag attached.

It’s not that $0.99 is a ton of money – most iPhone users think nothing of dropping a dollar for an app these days – but it is a limiting factor as to how many users will download the application. Free “sells” better than paid, at least when the goal is increasing the install base of end users.

This begs the question: is there some reason why Apple wouldn’t want its FaceTime app spread more widely among its Mac users? One has to wonder – especially since Apple has decided to make FaceTime a standalone paid application instead of integrating it into its already widely known and popular Mac app called iChat. It’s odd that Apple would now offer two different video chat programs – one for desktop-to-desktop connections and one for desktop-to-mobile.

FaceTime vs. the Competition

It’s also surprising to see the $0.99 fee considering that Apple’s main competition, Skype, began giving away free video chat with its iPhone application back in December 2010. And Skype’s version works over both Wi-Fi and 3G connections, while FaceTime on mobile is a Wi-Fi-only application.

Other startups in the video chat space are growing quickly, too. Tango, for example, does iPhone and Android video chat sessions with desktop support in the works, and up-and-comer ooVoo does video chat with up to six participants on Mac, PC, Android and soon iOS devices. How does Apple expect to compete with cross-platform competitors whose apps are free?

Maybe Apple doesn’t need to compete with them. Back when FaceTime launched, Apple CEO Steve Jobs did note that Apple intends to make FaceTime’s technology an open platform for video chat applications. He probably didn’t mean “open” as in “open source,” but “open” as in – feel free to integrate our technology into your company’s video chat product. Assuming that’s still the course Apple is following, Tango, Skype, ooVoo and others aren’t necessarily the competition – they’re just another potential customer for FaceTime integration in the future.