Walkie Talkie broken for anyone?

[LbSigman]

Is walkie talkie working for anyone? Not sure if turning FaceTime off due to the bug had anything to do with the functionality of the walkie talkie, but it's not working. I keep getting an error popping on my phone saying the "call" could not be initiated. I tried removing my wife as a contact, and I tried adding her back in, but now I'm getting an error saying the invite could not be sent. My wife is having the same issues as well. I tried adding my sister's boyfriend and I'm getting the same error.

We all have the latest version of iOS and WatchOS.

 

[SDColorado]

My wife and I could not get ours to work either. Not sure if it is due to the FaceTime issue or something else, but we can't seem to get it to work

 

[StumpyBloke]

My wife and I could not get ours to work either. Not sure if it is due to the FaceTime issue or something else, but we can't seem to get it to work

Walkie-talkie relies on the FaceTime service so I would imagine it’s to do with Apple turning off group FaceTime. I don’t know anyone that uses so I can’t test it myself.

 

[harriska2]

Yeah, I’ve used it several times successfully. Didn’t work today.

 

[OBirder]

Was working for us today as usual.

 

[SDColorado]

Was working for us today as usual.

Sure enough, ours is working again today too. Just checked it after I read your post. Thanks!

 

[millerj123]

It’s never worked well for my wife and I. Faster and more convenient to call or text rather than bullish with walkie talkie.

 

[OBirder]

It’s never worked well for my wife and I. Faster and more convenient to call or text rather than bullish with walkie talkie.

The is the advantage of different options to choose from.

To us it's a great feature and certainly faster and easier than text or call. I turn the feature off during the work week and it won't bully me. On the weekend I turn it on and change my watch face with a Walkie Talkie complication.

At times we are outdoors to look for wildlife with photo equipment in the hand and we split on a trail and one person goes left, while the other goes right. In those cases it's much faster to quickly press the Walkie Talkie button and call "Found it" or something similar, then to put the camera aside and pull the phone to call or text.

I use Walkie Talkie, text and call. Which one depends on situation and length of communication.

 

[AZhappyjack]

Couldn't say. It looks/acts too much like the annoying Nextel 'squawk' crap from the '90s... absolutely not interested. I can't think of anyone that I want to "talk" to badly enough to even try it.

 

[eastamherstbias]

I have never gotten it to work. I have had two new watches in the same room and nothing... they won't approve on each others device. super annoying.

 

[OBirder]

I have never gotten it to work. I have had two new watches in the same room and nothing... they won't approve on each others device. super annoying.

While at the beginning of the rollout we had a few troubles, now it does work most of the time for us. Maybe you need to troubleshoot e.g.:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208917

https://appletoolbox.com/2018/08/apple-watch-walkie-talkie-not-working-how-to-fix/

 

[Ideanj]

If you deactivated your FaceTime due to the recent bug, or if FaceTime isn’t logged into an Apple ID, then walkie talkie won’t work. Turning on FaceTime and signing back in should fix the problem. At least from my experience.

 

[millerj123]

My wife and I played with this yesterday in the house. It worked about 75% of the time. I'm sure we were holding it wrong.

 

[parseckadet]

I have had nothing but trouble with the feature. If I try to initiate the call it always fails. If my wife does it will work, but then once we're done talking I continue to hear a hissing from my watch's speaker. I have a series 4, she has a series 2.

 

[harriska2]

I have had nothing but trouble with the feature. If I try to initiate the call it always fails. If my wife does it will work, but then once we're done talking I continue to hear a hissing from my watch's speaker. I have a series 4, she has a series 2.

Weird, I have a 1 and my son has a 4. Initial connection takes several seconds (15-30?) but once connected we are able to initiate a walkie talkie connection both ways. To initiate the connection I pick the person then tap the round talk. Once it finishes connecting we hld down the talk button, say whatever needs saying, then release.