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FaceTime Charges

D

Dan14

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 28, 2009
228
0
All,

A colleague mentioned they have been charged for using FaceTime by their UK provider?

It got me thinking, although it uses wifi to carry out the call, it initiates as a standard phone call so even when it switches to wifi does it still maintain that cellular connection and then the call comes out of your inclusive minutes or charges you?

It got me thinking because if the new iPod does get FaceTime, with no cellular connection they obviously cant initiate the call in the same way the iPhone 4 does. Which then led me to think if you just go straight to the FaceTime button in the contacts app and use that does that go straight to a FaceTime call and therefore does not do anything cellular?
 
Dan14 said:
Which then led me to think if you just go straight to the FaceTime button in the contacts app and use that does that go straight to a FaceTime call and therefore does not do anything cellular?
Click to expand...

That is the way to place a 100% free FaceTime call.
 
Dan14 said:
All,

A colleague mentioned they have been charged for using FaceTime by their UK provider?

It got me thinking, although it uses wifi to carry out the call, it initiates as a standard phone call so even when it switches to wifi does it still maintain that cellular connection and then the call comes out of your inclusive minutes or charges you?

It got me thinking because if the new iPod does get FaceTime, with no cellular connection they obviously cant initiate the call in the same way the iPhone 4 does. Which then led me to think if you just go straight to the FaceTime button in the contacts app and use that does that go straight to a FaceTime call and therefore does not do anything cellular?
Click to expand...

if you start a call normally then initiate facetime in the middle of it, it will come out or your minutes or be charge if its a call not eligiable for your minutes. if you go to contacts and press facetime from there, it would be purely via wifi, therefore no charges or anything....
 
Dan14 said:
although it uses wifi to carry out the call, it initiates as a standard phone call
Click to expand...

That's not exactly how it works.
The first time you USE Facetime, it initiates a cell call. This is just to register your particular iPhone 4 and it's unique identifier with the Apple Facetime server. After that, it never uses the cell phone aspects of your iPhone again.
Obviously, when they bring Facetime to other Apple products, there will be an alternative way that the unique identifier gets transmitted to the Apple Facetime server.
I can't find where I read this at present, so sorry for not being able to give you the full information.
 
Not sure on that. I have an i4. My uncle just got one. I had my uncle in my contacts list and had called him before (when he didn't have an iphone). I pulled up my contacts and clicked the facetime? button and it connected, and as far as I could tell, it didn't call him first. So somehow it went behind the scenes to check the info and connect it.
 
jacollins said:
Not sure on that. I have an i4. My uncle just got one. I had my uncle in my contacts list and had called him before (when he didn't have an iphone). I pulled up my contacts and clicked the facetime? button and it connected, and as far as I could tell, it didn't call him first. So somehow it went behind the scenes to check the info and connect it.
Click to expand...
Currently the way it works is that you have to have called the other party to initiate a FaceTime call. After that you can hit the FaceTime button in contacts to FaceTime with them without it going over the cell network. As far as I can remember the contact's FaceTime button doesn't exist if you haven't already called someone with an iP4.

In iOS 4.1 beta they have added the ability to use an email address to initiate a FaceTime call. Everyone is assuming this is for the next iPod touch and iPad with front facing cameras.

[Edit]After some research it seems that once you've initiated a FaceTime call with anyone you can FaceTime with anyone else by using the contact's FaceTime button.
 
QuarterSwede said:
Currently the way it works is that you have to have called the other party to initiate a FaceTime call. After that you can hit the FaceTime button in contacts to FaceTime with them without it going over the cell network. As far as I can remember the contact's FaceTime button doesn't exist if you haven't already called someone with an iP4.

In iOS 4.1 beta they have added the ability to use an email address to initiate a FaceTime call. Everyone is assuming this is for the next iPod touch and iPad with front facing cameras.

[Edit]After some research it seems that once you've initiated a FaceTime call with anyone you can FaceTime with anyone else by using the contact's FaceTime button.
Click to expand...

actually, i have the facetime button in contacts and i've never even done any facetime calls and haven't called anyone with an iPhone 4 yet either
 
andythursby said:
actually, i have the facetime button in contacts and i've never even done any facetime calls and haven't called anyone with an iPhone 4 yet either
Click to expand...

Yes, but having the button and having a button that actually initiates a Facetime 'call' are two different things. I don't think the button will actually work. Would love to know, though!
 
Mliii said:
Yes, but having the button and having a button that actually initiates a Facetime 'call' are two different things. I don't think the button will actually work. Would love to know, though!
Click to expand...

well the button is there, i would assume if i press it, it should work right off the bat! otherwise its a bit pointless being there. hoping to test it with my best mate when she borrows her bf's new iPhone 4 at some point so will update when i get to try it.
 
Except that I also saw the button on an entry in the Contacts Page of an iPhone 3 g that had been updated to IOS 4.01, and I know that the Facetime button is there for people who are on an unsupported carrier, so not quite sure. Wish we could test it and see.
 
Mliii said:
Except that I also saw the button on an entry in the Contacts Page of an iPhone 3 g that had been updated to IOS 4.01, and I know that the Facetime button is there for people who are on an unsupported carrier, so not quite sure. Wish we could test it and see.
Click to expand...

i presume it will just throw up an error on the 3G, from what some people were saying about facetime on officially unsupported networks, they could still do facetime, it's probably in contacts as a standard for iPhone 4 anyway and if it's not supported, just comes up with an error. i would assume saying call failed or something.
 
Got me on that. I have the Facetime button on all my contacts (even if I haven't called them at all recently), although only the ones I've facetimed have the movie camera on the button.

Pretty sure when I facetimed my uncle, it didn't exist, and I don't recall it calling him (no dialtone/dialing/ringing). It could have did it in the background muted though.
 
QuarterSwede said:
Currently the way it works is that you have to have called the other party to initiate a FaceTime call. After that you can hit the FaceTime button in contacts to FaceTime with them without it going over the cell network. As far as I can remember the contact's FaceTime button doesn't exist if you haven't already called someone with an iP4.

In iOS 4.1 beta they have added the ability to use an email address to initiate a FaceTime call. Everyone is assuming this is for the next iPod touch and iPad with front facing cameras.

[Edit]After some research it seems that once you've initiated a FaceTime call with anyone you can FaceTime with anyone else by using the contact's FaceTime button.
Click to expand...

I think your edit is more accurate. The first facetime call I ever placed was through contacts --> facetime. No regular voice call was initiated first.
 
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