No FaceTime Audio on Apple Watch

[harry20larry]

As the title says. Does this surprise anyone?

 

[SamGabbay]

I am very surprised that there is no FaceTime Audio option on the Watch. I was very much looking forward to this being that regular calls can be a little hard to hear. Hopefully it's fixed with a software update.

 

[JaJaWa]

Went into the Apple Store and asked about this - the manager said that it was due to bandwidth limitations, but it could be added in a future update if they can get the hardware to handle it. Very disappointing, especially as my contract includes inclusive data but not inclusive minutes.

 

[simonx314]

Went into the Apple Store and asked about this - the manager said that it was due to bandwidth limitations, but it could be added in a future update if they can get the hardware to handle it. Very disappointing, especially as my contract includes inclusive data but not inclusive minutes.

Bandwidth limitations? FaceTime Audio is very low bandwidth. The Watch can stream video from the camera app and high quality music which are much higher bandwidth.

 

[mcdspncr]

Yeah, very surprising. Really wish they would add that into the regular phone app as I call many people overseas with it. As per the band with issues, there's already a Skype app… I'm not really sure what issues they could be referring to

 

[Mascots]

Bandwidth limitations? FaceTime Audio is very low bandwidth. The Watch can stream video from the camera app and high quality music which are much higher bandwidth.

I think "bandwidth limitations" might be an easy form of temporary "technical limitations".

I was surprised as well at the fact that  Watch doesn't support FaceTime audio, especially since I use it over a cell networo anytime I can, and they put so much effort into the phone aspect of communication.

Though, I think it's a minor feature and one that will be added at WWDC this year. It may have been skipped because of time constraints or other related reasons as they were working to actually get the watch out of the door.

 

[SoGood]

I think "bandwidth limitations" might be an easy form of temporary "technical limitations".

If there's bandwidth to stream regular calls, then there's no reason why FT Audio calls can't be streamed. I think it's not so much a technical limitation as 'out of time' for the development team in this v1.0 of iOS for the Watch. Stay tuned I'd say.

 

[WilliamG]

If there's bandwidth to stream regular calls, then there's no reason why FT Audio calls can't be streamed. I think it's not so much a technical limitation as 'out of time' for the development team in this v1.0 of iOS for the Watch. Stay tuned I'd say.

I agree with this, - there's no reason why FT Audio can't be piped through to the Apple Watch. It gets piped through to my BT headset just fine.

Also, there's no reason why Apple Watch Siri should not be able to calculate a percentage either. I was surprised when I asked her a simple % question - "What's 20% of 400," she referred me to using my phone.

Yet, she can tell me so many other mathematical answers.

So...strange...

 

[JaJaWa]

Also, there's no reason why Apple Watch Siri should not be able to calculate a percentage either. I was surprised when I asked her a simple % question - "What's 20% of 400," she referred me to using my phone.



Yet, she can tell me so many other mathematical answers.



So...strange...

You can say "<Number> times point <Percentage>"

So "400 times point 20" gives you the attached answer.

 

[WilliamG]

You can say "<Number> times point <Percentage>"

So "400 times point 20" gives you the attached answer.View attachment 552322

Good call. I'll have to use that instead of, "What's 20% of 400."