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moonman239

Cancelled
Original poster
Mar 27, 2009
1,541
32
I just found out that you can't initiate a FaceTime Audio call with anyone who is logged in to FaceTime. The person you want to call must also have FaceTime installed. Otherwise, you can initiate a video call or a regular call that costs minutes.
 

kas23

macrumors 603
Oct 28, 2007
5,629
288
I don't get FaceTime audio. Isn't it essentially VOIP, which has been available on the iPhone for a few years?
 

johnnyboy360

macrumors regular
Aug 28, 2010
226
7
you-dont-say.jpeg
 

j4zb4

macrumors 6502a
Oct 15, 2011
733
0
In other news: phone calls only work if the other person has a telephone... :p
 

zamudiovsky

macrumors regular
Sep 17, 2012
219
1
Also, i just found out that whatsapp messages only work when both parties have whatsapp...

hahaha jk, I mean, it makes sense, it has it's own protocols to communicate
 

rorschach

macrumors 68020
Jul 27, 2003
2,275
1,876
I don't get FaceTime audio. Isn't it essentially VOIP, which has been available on the iPhone for a few years?

Yes but it's built in. No extra apps to install. No need to leave an app running in the background, which kills battery.
 

kas23

macrumors 603
Oct 28, 2007
5,629
288
Yes but it's built in. No extra apps to install. No need to leave an app running in the background, which kills battery.

An extra app to install? Seems like a paltry benefit. And saying FaceTime is not running in the background is like saying your phone or message app isn't running in the background. They're always in the background. Not wanting an additional app in the background would have been more accurate.
 

CyBeRino

macrumors 6502a
Jun 18, 2011
744
46
Which would use a heck of a lot of data.. would be an incredibly bad implementation.

No it wouldn't. A wholly black image is very easy to compress, and the spec allows for multiple size video feeds (i.e., it can handle both 640x480 and HD, so it's not dependent on video resolution) so you could just send it a very small, black image with the most terrible compression known to man.

Also, depending on implementation, you could say you were going send it a video feed but then in practise not actually send one.
 

rorschach

macrumors 68020
Jul 27, 2003
2,275
1,876
An extra app to install? Seems like a paltry benefit. And saying FaceTime is not running in the background is like saying your phone or message app isn't running in the background. They're always in the background. Not wanting an additional app in the background would have been more accurate.

But the whole Phone app and Messages app
and Facetime app aren't running in the background. Those services are built into the core system. You don't need to have the apps running to get a phone call or a text message.

Thus they use much fewer resources than leaving an app running, which is what third-party VOIP services require.
 

kas23

macrumors 603
Oct 28, 2007
5,629
288
But the whole Phone app and Messages app
and Facetime app aren't running in the background. Those services are built into the core system. You don't need to have the apps running to get a phone call or a text message.

Yes they are running in background. If your phone was jail broken, you could look at sbs settings to see this. In addition, Safari is always running and Music app runs a lot too.

http://www.everythingicafe.com/forum/threads/processes-always-running.47560/
 

FSMBP

macrumors 68030
Jan 22, 2009
2,714
2,723
An extra app to install? Seems like a paltry benefit. And saying FaceTime is not running in the background is like saying your phone or message app isn't running in the background. They're always in the background. Not wanting an additional app in the background would have been more accurate.

Big benefit not needing a third-party app. For example, I can Facetime audio with ANYONE with an iPhone 5C or 5S (since they shipped with iOS 7). I don't have to worry if they have Skype, if they even have a Skype account etc.

It's like iMessage. It's built-in, no user name, no extra thing to download and have to have the latest version or else it won't connect.
 

antiprotest

macrumors 601
Apr 19, 2010
4,051
14,271
If you think that's something, wait till you find out that any kind of call only works if the other person has a phone. I was terribly shocked and disappointed when I discovered this fatal flaw in my smartphone.
 

kas23

macrumors 603
Oct 28, 2007
5,629
288
Big benefit not needing a third-party app. For example, I can Facetime audio with ANYONE with an iPhone 5C or 5S (since they shipped with iOS 7). I don't have to worry if they have Skype, if they even have a Skype account etc.

It's like iMessage. It's built-in, no user name, no extra thing to download and have to have the latest version or else it won't connect.

Legitimate reason, assuming the person you're trying to reach owns an Apple product. It would be better if Apple made FaceTime an open standard like they said they would.
 
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