Since three of the four people in my office didn’t realize that FaceTime isn’t enabled by default, we thought it would be nice to share the simple, but easily over-looked aspect of how to actually turn it on for anyone with an iPhone 4. And yes, I am jealous, but I’m on Verizon and that’s not changing anytime soon (though I think my Android phone is heading to the trashbin fairly soon – more on that another time). Also, I think this post will do really well for my blog’s SEO purposes, which is great because of all the ads I show. Oh, wait… Anyhow, here you go:
When you first get your iPhone and make a call, it’ll look like the old iPhone call screen:
Don’t fret, you are merely 4 clicks away from Facetime! First, go to home, then settings:
Then click on “Phone” settings. Now you’ll see a big happy shiny button to enable FaceTime. Do so.
Now the next time you make a call, you’ll see the FaceTime button dead-center in the middle. And all will be well in your world!
We had a little debate about if this should’ve been enabled by default or not. I think we all agreed it seemed a bit odd to start disabled, but I’m sure there was some reason behind it, possibly due to privacy, bandwidth concerns, etc. Once FaceTime is enabled, you’ll also notice a slight change in your call history:
I wonder if a future version of iOS will enable FaceTime voicemails or recording?
Anyhow, hope this was helpful to those who didn’t want to have to use the official Apple FaceTime tryout number! 🙂
You can also CALL 1888-FACETIME and get an apple rep on the phone, with whom one can test it AND they will walk you through setup if need be and some features and functions of the app.
Works really nicely, Forward thinking as usual.
(but then again, I DID invent it!)
I can only imagine that it will be about a week before someone creates ome api hack for ichat or something else that will mimic the ios4 software and allow it to be used with other portable devices.
prolly won’t show up in the app store though. 😉
So what do the rest of us do, the ones that this “facetime” slider button does not appear in the settings menu under phone options under settings?
Be careful about purchasing an Iphone4 in the Middle East. FaceTime has been disabled in iPhone4. This is because of an ‘under the table’ agreement with Apple and the local telco’s who are afraid of loosing income via VOIP. It makes very little sense to purchase an iPhone4 if FaceTime is disabled. The only way to enable FaceTime on these partially disabled phones is via a jail break, which will void the warranty.
I got the iPhone 4 and it does not have the FaceTime button!! That sucks! I mean like what the heck? That’s one of the reasons I got the stupid thing!! This is freaking annoying!! Why only in the middle-east?? Am I the only one upset about this?! No one even told me! I just assumed because it was an iPhone 4!!
of course it does. You just have to first enable it in SETTINGS and then you have to be calling someone who HAS facetime on either the iphone or on their desktop or ipad to be able to connect. It’s there young grasshopper.
okay, maybe your OS in the middle east doesn’t, my bad. Just download the us files and restore.