In June of 2010, shortly after announcing the launch of FaceTime’s beta program, Apple’s then-CEO Steve Jobs stated that the company’s engineers had built the technology entirely on well-known standards, and that the company was prepared to open up the service so that users of competing mobile platforms would be able to take advantage of it.
Fast forward four years, and a number of things have changed. In 2011, the folks from Cupertino launched iMessage, which brings rich media messaging to all of the company’s operating systems. Meanwhile, FaceTime has continued to evolve, jumping from iOS to OS X and, as of last September, gaining the ability to handle voice-only calls—which, in addition to reducing data usage, also allow you to make a call without having to stare at someone’s chin for minutes on end).
Alas, something has stayed the same: None of these technologies work (at least officially) on anything but Apple’s own devices and computers, leaving us to wonder why the company seems to have changed its corporate mind—and whether keeping things the way they are would be a good idea.
I have updated the latest operating software, signed in and out, re-started my machine but I can't get facetime and imessage on my macpro or my macair to sync contacts, make calls. With thanks, Adrianne. MacBook Air 13', macOS 10.13 Posted on Apr 9, 2020 7:14 PM.
The little services that could
- A note about iMessage and Facetime: Messages is the built-in app on iPhones that handles both SMS-based text messaging (the green bubbles sent to people without iPhones) and data-based iMessages (the blue bubbles between people with iPhones).
- FaceTime for PC makes it possible to talk, chat or hold meetings with anyone on an iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mac, and Windows devices, and also now Facetime – Video Calling App is also coming in PC with the built-in camera software.
Although I was initially indifferent to both, iMessage and FaceTime have grown considerably on me.
For one thing, they surpass their “legacy” counterparts—MMS messages and phone calls—in a number of obvious ways. A phone call requires a phone number, which is usually tied to a particular device; calling someone at home or on their mobile requires knowing (and dialing) two different numbers, whereas FaceTime reaches them wherever they are. Ditto with iMessage, which has the added benefit of telling you when your messages have been delivered to and read by their intended recipient, regardless of where they might be.
And then there’s the stick-it-to-the-phone-company factor. I resisted using SMS for a long time due to the ridiculously high prices imposed by cell providers, which are even more ridiculous once you realize that transmitting messages costs said providers literally nothing. With iMessage, I can communicate with all my contacts back and forth at a fraction of the price, or even for free if I can piggyback on an existing Wi-Fi connection.
The same applies to FaceTime, which also happens, at least to my untrained ears, to provide much higher voice clarity than a plain-old telephone line. Ever since the service gained voice-only support, which uses less data and is much more discrete than its video counterpart, I have found myself using it to call more and more people on my contact list.
Private and confidential
Another great advantage of Apple’s messaging system is that it has proven to be reliably free of annoyance. While the deregulation of the telecommunication industry has brought us amazingly low prices on phone service, it has also brought the cost of down to commodity prices the use of the telephone as a medium for spam, which—at least in my household—means that the majority of phone calls we receive these days are blatantly fraudulent in nature.
Robocalling and telemarketing have always been a problem, but phone service on a large scale used to be expensive enough to make outright fraud hard to justify from a return-on-investment perspective. When phone calls cost fractions of a penny, however, you only have to convince a small number of victims that they have won the lottery or are about to receive a large inheritance from a recently-deceased Nigerian prince in order to turn a profit.
This has never been a problem with either iMessage or FaceTime, since there is essentially no way to use either unless you use them through an approved device. Although figuring out a way to contact me can’t be too hard—my e-mail address is, after all, quite easy to find—I’ve never had to deal with so much as a single unwanted iMessage, which has made Apple’s services surprisingly efficient in the signal-to-noise department.
Safe haven
Finally, one of my favorite features of both services is the complete lack of a public or social layer. For example, neither FaceTime nor iMessage provide any kind of directory through which it’s possible to look up a user’s contact information. iMessage has no social-media features: There is no public timeline to which users can post timely details about their lives, and no way to “friend” other people (other than adding them as a contact, of course).
In my eyes, this makes both services great communication media for young people who haven’t quite yet had an opportunity to understand and appreciate the value of their privacy. As it turns out, most of my kids’ friends count an iPad among their family possessions, and both FaceTime and iMessage make great ways for them to keep in touch, at least once you’ve explained to them what constitutes an “acceptable usage policy” of their video- and photo-sharing capabilities.
Compared with pure social-media plays like Facebook, whose focus on advertising translates into an environment that tries in every way possible to convince users that their privacy is worthless, Apple’s approach allows children to enjoy the benefit of modern communications without giving up the kind of control over their public life that they have a right to preserve until they can appreciate its value.
The right decision?
It doesn’t take a lot of effort to see the downsides of Apple’s refusal to open up its communication platforms. If it so happens that your best friend is an Android fan, iMessage and FaceTime aren’t going to do you a lot of good, and, while there are plenty of alternatives, the fragmentation that they bring about makes keeping on top of your communications much less convenient.
By the same token, the focus on privacy that makes these technologies excellent personal communication tools also makes them nearly useless from a business perspective. Sure, I don’t get telemarketing calls over FaceTime (yet), but I also can’t use it to get customer support from the companies I actually do want to do business with, or to communicate with all but the business contacts I have a very close relationship with.
In the end, however, Apple’s strategy seems to have worked out for the best. The availability of so many different third-party alternatives means that opening up FaceTime and iMessage to third parties would give users only minor benefits, while perhaps undoing those features that make them excellent services in the first place.
Apple iPhones are my suggestion for anyone planning to study or live abroad. Why? Well, Apple’s iMessage and Facetime services have international messaging and voice and video calling built in to others with Apple devices (with no additional fees) and the setup of iMessage and Facetime is simple and user friendly. Bonus: iOS (Apple iPhone’s operating system) has some of the best (and most user-friendly) travel and communication apps.
So, there are two scenarios here that I will cover:
1. You are traveling/moving abroad and want to keep in touch with other iPhone users in the U.S.
2. You know an iPhone user traveling/moving abroad and want to keep in touch with him or her overseas
Want another great international phone tip? Check out this post.
A note about iMessage and Facetime:
Messages is the built-in app on iPhones that handles both SMS-based text messaging (the green bubbles sent to people without iPhones) and data-based iMessages (the blue bubbles between people with iPhones). You can always send SMS-based (green) text messages from your phone number (whether you are using a U.S. or international SIM card) to another person, so long as text messaging is included in your mobile plan. In other words, if you are in the U.S., with a U.S. SIM card and U.S. phone number, sending text messages to U.S. numbers should work perfectly. If you are in Germany, for example, with a German SIM card and a German phone number, sending text messages to German numbers should work perfectly.
Changing the iMessage settings I mention below does not change your text messaging settings. Instead, we are changing how the iMessage (data-based, blue bubbled) system works so that you can text internationally for no additional fees. In other words, if you are in Germany, with a German SIM card, and a German phone number, sending iMessages to a U.S. iPhone should work perfectly. Or, if you are in the U.S., with a U.S. SIM card, with a U.S. number, sending iMessages to a German iPhone should work perfectly.
Facetime is the built-in app on iPhones that handles video and audio calls over data – in other words, calls between iPhones/iPads/Macs that uses up data on your mobile plan, rather than minutes. By following the steps below, you can easily place these video and audio without international fees to international users.
International iMessaging and Facetime calls between iPhone users (having followed the steps below) are free. That is, incurs no additional fees above the regular data fees included your mobile plan. All of the below steps assume you (and the recipient) have data included in your mobile service plans, as all smartphones usually do, and/or you (and the recipient) are sending and receiving iMessages and Facetime calls over wifi, without using up any data.
You are traveling/moving abroad and want to keep in touch with other iPhone users in the U.S.
1. When you purchased and set up your phone, you automatically made your current, U.S. phone number link to iMessage and Facetime. You can check this on your iPhone by going to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and going to Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at:
2. If you are still in the U.S., your American phone number should be listed. If so, continue to step 3. If not, check and make sure that a) you have iMessage turned on, under Settings > Messages > iMessage (the switch to the right should be green) and b) you are logged in to your Apple ID, under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > Apple ID: youremailaddress. If it’s still not working, try this Apple troubleshooting guide.
3. We need to link your email address to your iMessage and Facetime accounts. Under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and under Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at: see if your email address is listed. If so, skip to step 4. If not, click on Add Another Email… and follow the prompts, adding your main email address.
4. Once both your phone number and your email address are listed, scroll down and click on your email address under the Start New Conversations From (Lost? it’s under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and under Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at:). This will make new messages that you send in iMessage to other Apple users, send from your email address, rather than your phone number. Make sure your contacts have your email address in their phones’ address books, so they know its you. Weeklyplan.
5. Once you are abroad and have purchased SIM card (did you read this guide?), insert it into your phone (following the carrier’s instructions). Note that at this point, your phone number will change. In other words, the SIM card that identified your phone as the U.S. number (555) XXX-XXXX is no longer active (can no longer receive or send calls/texts/etc), and the new SIM card, that identifies your phone as the overseas number, is active. Hold on to your old U.S. SIM card and store it in a safe place – you can always switch the cards back if necessary.
6. Your iPhone will now add your new overseas number to iMessages (so that you can send and receive messages from this overseas number) and to Facetime (so you can place video and audio calls – over data or wifi – from this overseas number). You can check this under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and under Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at: – both your new, overseas number and your email address should be listed. Make sure that Start New Conversations From has your email address with a check next to it.
Imessage And Facetime Activation
7. Start a new message by going to your Messages app, then click the compose message icon (top right of the screen). You should now be able to both send text messages (the SMS green bubbled messages) from your overseas number to other numbers in the same country and send iMessages (the data-based blue bubbled messages) to anyone in the world with an iPhone, iPad or Mac! The Messages app will automatically configure the message into either an iMessage (your contact’s name or number in the to field will turn blue) for iPhone, iPad, or Mac users or into a SMS text message (your contact’s name or number in the to field will turn green) for non-iPhone users.
8. Start a new Facetime call by opening your Facetime app, then selecting your contact, and, scrolling down, choosing either the camera symbol (for a video call) or phone symbol (for an audio call) next to the “Facetime” option.
9. Voila! Enjoy both domestic, overseas texting and international iMessaging and international video and audio calls! Music discography downloads free.
You know an iPhone user traveling/moving abroad and want to keep in touch with him or her overseas
1. When you purchased and setup your phone, you automatically made your U.S. phone number link to iMessage and Facetime. You can check this on your iPhone by going to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and going to Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at:
Chandamama old editions in kannada pdf download. 2. Your U.S. mobile phone number should be listed. If so continue to step 3. If not, check and make sure that a) you have iMessage turned on, under Settings > Messages > iMessage (the switch to the right should be green) and b) you are logged in to your Apple ID, under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > Apple ID: youremailaddress. If it’s still not working, try this Apple troubleshooting guide.
3. We need to link your email address to your iMessage and Facetime accounts. Under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and under Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at: see if your email address is listed. If so, skip to step 4. If not, click on Add Another Email… and follow the prompts, adding your main email address.
4. Once both your phone number and your email address are listed, scroll down and click on your email address under the Start New Conversations From (Lost? it’s under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > You can be reached by iMessage at: and under Settings > FaceTime > You can be reached by FaceTime at:). This will make new messages that you send in iMessage to other Apple users, send from your email address, rather than your phone number. Make sure your contacts have your email address in their phones’ address books, so they know its you.
5. Start a new message by going to your Messages app, then click the compose message icon (top right of the screen). You should now be able to both send text messages (the SMS green bubbled messages) from your U.S. number to other numbers in the U.S. and send iMessages (the data-based blue bubbled messages) to anyone in the world with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac! The Messages app will automatically configure the message into either an iMessage (your contact’s name or number in the to field will turn blue) for iPhone, iPad, or Mac users or into a SMS text message (your contact’s name or number in the to field will turn green) for non-iPhone users.
6. Start a new Facetime call by opening your Facetime app, then selecting your contact, and, scrolling down, choosing either the camera symbol (for a video call) or phone symbol (for an audio call) next to the “Facetime” option.
Facetime E Imessage Free
7. Voila! Enjoy both domestic, U.S. texting and international iMessaging and international video and audio calls!