It’s a nifty feature and can come in handy when you’re not in a position to pick your iPhone. You can even answer calls on second-generation AirPods and Beats headphones by just saying “Answer.”
Watch, listen, and share your screen
Another feature that Apple introduced with iOS 15 is SharePlay. You can now watch a movie together, watch live sports events, listen to songs together, and even share your screen during a FaceTime call. This can certainly come in handy when you’ve to fix your Grandma’s iPhone from long-distance.
By default, your FaceTime email ID and phone number are set to the Apple ID and the SIM card number in the iPhone. However, if you decide to change or add an email address to FaceTime, follow these steps:
Open Settings and tap your name at the top.
Now, tap Name, Phone Number, Email.
Tap the Edit button next to CONTACTABLE AT.
Select Add Email or Phone Number → Add an Email Address.
Similarly, you can add a phone number to your account too.
After adding the desired email ID and phone number to your account, follow these steps to add that phone number to FaceTime:
Open Settings and scroll down to select FaceTime.
Now, edit YOU CAN BE REACHED BY FACETIME AT.
In this, select the new email ad dress or phone number added to your account.
Similarly, you can select the CALLER ID, the label that shows on other’s phones when you FaceTime call them.
Maintaining eye contact during a FaceTime call
Generally, when we use other video calling services, we’re either looking at the person or ourselves during the call. And naturally, due to this, our eyes appear to be looking downwards.
FaceTime has a feature that ‘maintains eye contact’ during the call. In other words, the other person sees that you are looking at them instead of the screen. This technology uses Apple’s fantastic Face ID scanner and is available on iPhone X and above.
To enable this:
Open iPhone Settings.
Select FaceTime.
Scroll down and toggle on Eye Contact.
How to set up FaceTime on other Apple devices
FaceTime isn’t limited to iPhone. You can make a FaceTime call from a Mac, iPad, and even an Apple Watch. Check out our detailed explainer on how you can make a FaceTime call on iPhone, Mac, and iPad.
Common problems and fixes for FaceTime on iPhone
Unable to make a FaceTime call?
If you’re having issues in making a FaceTime call from your Apple device, ensure that you fulfill the pre-requisites listed below:
Make sure you’re signed in with your Apple ID account on your device.
Ensure that your Apple device is connected to the internet.
Ensure that the person you’re trying to call has an Apple device, is signed into their Apple account, and is connected to the internet.
You might be in a country where FaceTime isn’t supported. As of now, United Arab Emirates is the only country that doesn’t support FaceTime.
Although rare, confirm there is no FaceTime outage from Apple’s end on the Apple System support page.
If you’re still unable to make a FaceTime call from your Apple device, try to reset FaceTime. Follow the steps mentioned at the beginning of the article to set up FaceTime from scratch.
Have sound or video quality issues?
Mostly, the issues about low-quality video or audio quality on FaceTime are due to slow internet. If you’ve choppy or grainy FaceTime video, use a better internet connection. It is recommended to use FaceTime with at least 10mbps internet speed.
Some audio and video issues might also be related to your iPhone’s camera and mic hardware. Dust and other particles enter the iPhone’s camera and mic over time, so it’s recommended to clean the iPhone’s mic and camera regularly.
What to do if you can’t see a contact on FaceTime?
It might happen that a contact you added doesn’t show up on FaceTime. There might be several reasons for this:
Your iPhone might not be connected to the internet or may have a patchy connection.
The person you’re trying to call might not be connected to the internet.
The person you’re trying to call might not have an Apple device or doesn’t have FaceTime set up.
If you’ve just saved the contact on your iPhone, it’s best to wait for some time before searching them on FaceTime. Sometimes it takes a few minutes before a contact shows up.
Otherwise, you can reset your iPhone settings to refresh all the FaceTime contacts:
Head over to Settings → Reset
Select Reset All Settings.
Now, the contact should show up on FaceTime.
Stop receiving FaceTime calls on other Apple devices
Receiving FaceTime calls on all of your Apple devices is a blessing. When your phone’s charging, you can answer the call on your Mac — when it works, it works seamlessly.
However, with more and more Apple devices in your ecosystem, it becomes a pain — especially when your devices are on ‘general.’
To stop receiving FaceTime calls on other Apple devices:
Go to Settings → Phone.”
Tap Calls on Other Devices
Here, select all the Apple devices on which you want to receive FaceTime (and normal) calls.
You can set FaceTime to block calls from unknown contacts and callers. To do this,
Go to iPhone Settings.
Scroll down and select FaceTime.
Go to the bottom and tap Blocked Contacts.
Now, select Add New to block a contact from dialing a FaceTime call.
FaceTime has truly changed the way we connect, especially during these times. With improvements like FaceTime links and SharePlay, Apple is evolving the video calling service into a do-it-all service.
With this comprehensive guide on FaceTime, I hope I was able to solve all of your issues. If you still run into some issues involving FaceTime, then surely let us know in the comments section below, and we’ll be more than happy to help.
