William Gallagher
Apple's Group FaceTime feature apparently isn't ready for prime time, and won't be available to the general public when iOS 12 is made available to customers in the fall.
The much-touted feature has been present throughout the beta, but for reasons unknown will now not be included in the initial public release which is expected in September alongside new iPhones.
The company released the information as part of its notes to developers in today's release of the latest beta. It says the feature "has been removed from the initial release of iOS 12 and will ship in a future software update later this fall."
When it finally rolls out, users will be able to have video calls with up to 32 participants, a feature competitors have had for years. A carousel along the bottom shows all participants, while those talking are brought into the majority of the screen. Individual windows can be brought full-screen as well.
Calls can be answered right on the Apple Watch, before jumping over to the video FaceTime call on an iPhone or iPad.
The feature is designed not just for iOS 12, but for macOS Mojave as well. The Mac version of FaceTime on Mojave lacks camera filters, video stickers and the face tracking Animoji and custom Memoji features available to iOS clients.
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
34 Comments
So next year then !
Why does the Mac alway suck the hind tit with features to iOS?! Mac was the FIRST platform, and should be leading or at least on feature-parity w/iOS devices. You know, Apple should really accelerate the iOS apps on macOS execution, that is what should really ship this fall w/Mojave! Doing so would give Mac a much-needed infusion of fresh apps!
Also tired of Apple carrot & stick w/promised features they delay endlessly. Promise only what you can realistically deliver on time and the ones you can't state they will be in a .5 release version or somethings at WWDC...
Can someone tell me why FaceTime hasn't supported multiple video participants for years? I mean, FOURTEEN FREAKIN' YEARS AGO, iChat AV 3 allowed for video conferencing with up to four people! And here we are in 2018, with exponentially more computing power and bandwidth, and FaceTime still doesn't support this.
BUMMER.
What Android "competitors" are referred to? Are they built-in apps??