Group FaceTime Chats Coming to iOS 12, Supports Up to 32 Simultaneous Users

[MacRumors]

Beginning this fall with iOS 12, FaceTime will support audio and video calls with as many as 32 simultaneous participants. Members will be able to drop in and out of group call as necessary, much like an ongoing conference call.

The announcement could be a blow to dedicated conference call services like Zoom, as smaller organizations may choose to rely on the the built-in FaceTime rather than paying for a more feature-filled service.

On more populated video calls, the FaceTime app will automatically focus on and enlarge the "tiles" of users, and vary the size of individual tiles when someone else talks. You can also choose to lock focus on a certain user, and apply filter effects, Animoji, and the new Memoji to yourself while live on a call.

Group FaceTime will work on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and you can answer on audio using the Apple Watch.

Article Link: Group FaceTime Chats Coming to iOS 12, Supports Up to 32 Simultaneous Users

 

[Princejb134]

highlight of the show GROUP FACETIME!!!!

 

[asdavis10]

Finally. But looks to be done right. Will be downloading the beta in a few hours to test.

 

[44267547]

32 people? That almost seems excessive. It doesn’t appear to be a feature I will never find useful.

 

[EdT]

This might be useful if it doesn’t lock people’s phone/IPad/watch up.

Out of curiosity can Skype (or any other non commercial video software) do something like this?

 

[MDF314159265]

Brady bunch FaceTime!

 

[Christian 5G]

That’s exciting but I don’t know the reason for me to have 32 people on chat like this.

Maybe someday I’ll need it.

 

[EdT]

32 people? That almost seems excessive. It doesn’t appear to be a feature I will never find useful.

I’ve had family Christmas video sessions with 10 or so. And since not everyone in the family owns Apple products we could have had 5-7 more people if it worked on Android or Pc. As it was 10 people were gathered in front of 2 IPads, so 5 on each side of the conversation and we tried to talk that way. As long as it is reliable having even 2-3 more devices would make things easier. Everyone having their own would be ideal, if it’s not crashing someone’s WiFi or locking up someone’s device.

 

[69Mustang]

That’s exciting but I don’t know the reason for me to have 32 people on chat like this.

Maybe someday I’ll need it.

Support for up to 32 people. Doesn't require it. While not for you, I'm sure others may have a desire to FT with 3, 4, 8, 15, or 31 others. For those people, this will be great.

 

[newyorksole]

32 people? That almost seems excessive. It doesn’t appear to be a feature I will never find useful.

Maybe, just MAYBE there are people/companies who need to video chat with that many people... Even though YOU think it’s excessive.

Obviously the majority of people will use it with 2-4 people.

 

[Princejb134]

That’s exciting but I don’t know the reason for me to have 32 people on chat like this.

Maybe someday I’ll need it.

well if they limit it to 3-4 people there will always be those complainers that will say how come i cant do 5.

 

[69Mustang]

This might be useful if it doesn’t lock people’s phone/IPad/watch up.

Out of curiosity can Skype (or any other non commercial video software) do something like this?

I think Skype and Hangouts has a 25 person limit. FB Messenger is 50 I think. Others have differing limits. So to answer your question, yes, others have been doing something like this.

 

[44267547]

Maybe, just MAYBE there are people/companies who need to video chat with that many people... Even though YOU think it’s excessive..

Good point. For example, I didn’t think about utilizing maybe a corporation that has to have some sort a type of group meeting that might have employees that are scattered about and then having them congregate through group FaceTime, probably would be beneficial.

 

[nviz22]

One of the few good iOS 12 features.

 

[EdT]

I think Skype and Hangouts has a 25 person limit. FB Messenger is 50 I think. Others have differing limits. So to answer your question, yes, others have been doing something like this.

Quit Facebook, so that option is out. Tried Skype a long time ago, worked well at first and then after an upgrade it quit working well. This was the same year as our group Christmas FaceTime, probably 5 years ago. Out of the 10-15 people total only 3 of us got Skype to work on our laptop, phone or pad. And all 3 were at my house. So we just group used FaceTime, one IPad at each house.
[doublepost=1528137638][/doublepost]

Quit Facebook, so that option is out. Tried Skype a long time ago, worked well at first and then after an upgrade it quit working well. This was the same year as our group Christmas FaceTime, probably 5 years ago. Out of the 10-15 people total only 3 of us got Skype to work on our laptop, phone or pad. And all 3 were at my house. So we just group used FaceTime, one IPad at each house.

And as an addendum: either group Skype didn’t work, or it wasn’t available. I know that I wasn’t aware it was possible to have multiple people using Skype.

 

[Askinas]

IOS 12 = 11.5.

Apple have you lost it all? Google here I come. Google can make i awesome OS whit nice UI, Split Screen.

 

[agsystems]

One of the few good iOS 12 features.

+Siri shortcuts - I'll wait for Beta 2 but I will probably update for this 2 features.

 

[nviz22]

+Siri shortcuts - I'll wait for Beta 2 but I will probably update for this 2 features.

Idk how good that will be because I feel like it adds too many steps, but let’s see. I want it to do well.

 

[agsystems]

IOS 12 = 11.5.

Apple have you lost it all? Google here I come. Google can make i awesome OS whit nice UI, Split Screen.

I get your point but if IOS 12 is able to run reliably and fast on older devices this means on new devices this thing will be a beauty.

 

[EdT]

I get your point but if IOS 12 is able to run reliably and fast on older devices this means on new devices this thing will be a beauty.

Some high up at Apple-I forget who- said that they were going to emphasize software and OS reliability after IOS problems that occurred the last few years. I don’t remember if it was before or after the September iPhone X announcement by Apple, but they had just run through multiple software and combination software/hardware problems and a lot of people were saying that Apple needed to concentrate on getting stable software instead of adding additional features.

It appears that is what they are doing.
[doublepost=1528139538][/doublepost]Well, software reliability AND Animoji’s.

 

[Askinas]

I get your point but if IOS 12 is able to run reliably and fast on older devices this means on new devices this thing will be a beauty.

Thats true mate. Lets hope iOS 13 will get new UI, Dark Mode and so on

 

[timborama]

I can’t even get two person FaceTime to work. “Reconnecting...”, ever since iOS 6.

 

[citi]

This might be useful if it doesn’t lock people’s phone/IPad/watch up.

Out of curiosity can Skype (or any other non commercial video software) do something like this?

Google hangouts

 

[Crissov]

When introducing it originally, Steve Jobs promised to standardize and thus open up the technology behind Face Time, so it could become interoperable with other vendors like communication protocols should be. I'm still waiting for that to happen

 

[macduke]

32 person group chat with a bunch of talking animal heads with filters applied is just madness, lol. But I think this will be useful for me for chatting with a few family members at once—especially when trying to plan for an event or something or having multiple people around the world chatting together over the holidays if we can't all see each other. Especially the older people in the family who only have iPads and know how to FaceTime but not how to setup anything with Google/Skype.