iOS 26: Everything New With FaceTime

[adrianlondon]

I would give one my kidneys to get them to put the front/back camera switching button right on the main view with the other controls, instead of it being in the thumbnail where you have to tap in and out all the time.

Agree - I'd love a prominent "switch camera" button. Your kidney though, not mine 😁

 

[ifxf]

An interesting possible solution for video calls is to add an entry in Contact cards that says which service to use for video calls (Skype, FaceTime, etc.). Then when you ask to call so and so it would use that service. Not great for group calls so better would be to somehow have a universal video service but that would inherently mean killing competition.
Of course 90% of my rare FaceTime calls are to my wife so she can help me choose the product she prefers when I'm out shopping for her so I know she also has an iPhone.

Bad example since Skype is EOL.

 

[DocMultimedia]

Leave it to Tasteless Tim to approve an icon that looks like that.

Totally agree. It's more or less an invisible icon.

 

[macpro2000]

At least you end the Facetime call now with a press of the button at the bottom right now instead of everyone seeing a big finger pressing it on the top. Amazing that ever made it through beta.

 

[appleCakes]

The only new feature I want in FaceTime is for it to detect that someone is out in public and insist that they turn off their mutha****in speakerphone. 😒

And for some, that could be while holding the phone to the ear -- call, FaceTime Audio, or even Video (no judgement, this is more frequent with the elderly).

Actually, if having an active call on speaker, moving the phone to the ear for more than a few seconds should automatically silent the speaker, in public or not. Or have it as an option, enabled by default.

 

[AL2TEACH]

Why not Spanish spoken in Mexico

Eh Homeland Security will come and get it!!!!

 

[schappim]

Apple needs to hurry up and get their act together when it comes to languages. It’s been years.

Not just languages but STT. Whisper and Parakeet destroy the built in engine and not being able to swap it out is very frustrating.

 

[jole]

An interesting possible solution for video calls is to add an entry in Contact cards that says which service to use for video calls (Skype, FaceTime, etc.). Then when you ask to call so and so it would use that service. Not great for group calls so better would be to somehow have a universal video service but that would inherently mean killing competition.
Of course 90% of my rare FaceTime calls are to my wife so she can help me choose the product she prefers when I'm out shopping for her so I know she also has an iPhone.

Allowing to choose other video conferencig apps do not help as long as Apple has locked other apps out of their system API needed for a full featured communication: SharePlay.

Apple vision seems to be that SharePlay is a superior way for "screen sharing". They are correct — it has interactivity and is very thoughtfully designed for group settings. Challenge is that their newest platform — visionOS — does not even allow anything but SharePlay for screen sharing. iPadOS and iOS allow screen sharing, but do not allow video conference apps share windows.

This has led to situation where Vision Pro is useless for video conferencing (only Facetime works properly, but it cannot be used in a typical cross platform professional setting). And iOS/iPadOS are inferior for video conferencing compared to a mac.

Apple — walled garden is fine, but preventing communications with the rest of the world not living in that garden is unacceptable.