FaceTime, Messages, and Phone form the core of Apple’s video, texting, and calling tools for owners of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches. As FaceTime and Messages have expanded features, they’ve become more complicated to master and use exactly the way you want. How they interact with the phone network and the Phone app can be a blurry line, too. In this book, Glenn Fleishman lays out your options to best understand, use, and customize FaceTime and Messages for your needs and conversations. Start by mastering (or reviewing) the basics of each app, then move into group calls and texts, using rich media, maintaining your privacy, and adding whimsy to conversations. Covers iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.
The book covers all three apps (and the many ways in which they interact) extensively, showing you:
- What’s new in the FaceTime, Messages, and Phone apps (updated for macOS Sonoma14.2, iOS 17.2, iPadOS 17.2, watchOS 10.2, and tvOS 10.2)
- How to master the basics of the FaceTime, Messages, and Phone apps
- Essential settings and preferences for these apps, including how to pick your primary address or phone number and manage location sharing, and maintain your privacy
- Ways to share your screen (or let someone share theirs with you) in both FaceTime and Messages, and when to use which
- How to insert the text of a sign or other printed material in a message, or even dial a phone number by pointing your iPhone at a printed number
- How to have fun and get creative with Message Effects, Camera Effects, stickers, and hashtag images
- How Apple secures live audio, video, and texting
- Strategies and tools to identify and block unwanted phone calls and messages
You’ll learn about FaceTime capabilities such as:
- How to use FaceTime for audio or video calls with one person or a group of up to 32 people
- Why you might want to use a FaceTime Link, and how it can extend FaceTime to Windows and Android users
- How to work with audio input and output devices in FaceTime
- How to use enhanced audio (Mic Mode) and video (Portrait Mode) effects in FaceTime calls on supported devices
- How to use the Eye Contact feature on iPhones and iPads, which simulates eye-to-eye contact even when you’re not looking at the camera
- How to place and receive FaceTime calls on an Apple TV using Continuity Camera
- How to use SharePlay, which lets parties carry on a FaceTime conversation while enjoying synchronized video, audio, or screen sharing (and even how to transfer SharePlay to an Apple TV)
- How to convert a FaceTime audio call to a video call
- How to use gestures to create animated video effects
Find out things you never knew about Messages, including:
- Why some conversations in Messages use iMessage (blue bubbles for individuals, gray bubbles for businesses) while others use SMS/MMS (green bubbles), and the differences between them
- All about advanced Messages features, such as nested replies and person-to-person Apple Pay
- Why Messages isn’t just for text, but also for audio messages, Digital Touch effects, animations, and more
- Ways to keep track of shared links and media across apps with Shared for You
- The privacy tradeoffs of Messages in iCloud
- Simple ways to create events and reminders from Messages conversations
- What to do when group chats get out of control—managing notifications, using mentions, and understanding the differences between SMS and MMS chats
- How to view transcriptions of audio messages
Make better use of the Phone app:
- How to make phone calls (including emergency calls) from your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch
- What the “verified” label on incoming phone calls means
Glenn Fleishman is a veteran technology writer who has contributed to dozens of publications across his career, including Macworld, Fast Company, and Increment. He has also written dozens of editions of books in the Take Control series. He spent 2019 and 2020 building 100 tiny type museums full of real printing artifacts. Glenn lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.
What’s New in the Second Edition
Due to significant changes in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17—and major but less massive ones in macOS 14 Sonoma, watchOS 10, and tvOS 17—this second edition best serves people who have those versions of Apple’s operating systems installed.
However, I do provide backwards-looking details, particularly for using FaceTime and Messages with people who have older devices or are running older operating systems. These mostly look back no further than iOS 15/iPadOS 15, macOS 12 Monterey, and watchOS 8.
The biggest overall change is how Apple reorganized Messages for iOS/iPadOS. The app once had features scattered all over the place: an apps drawer for iMessages, the user view for location, and elsewhere in the interface. There’s good news: a single plus () button in Messages for iOS/iPadOS consolidates nearly everything—for instance, controls to share your location or request someone else’s (see Share Location in Messages). I’ve made changes throughout the book that reflect this one-button-for-all approach. (macOS hasn’t adopted that approach yet, though it’s slimmed down, too.)
Here’s a breakdown of more new and updated features by category:
Phone:
Apple has elevated the Phone app—finally!—to have some more interesting features after years of little evolution. The two features new to iOS 17 are big improvements, each in its way:
- Contact Poster: Apple lets you choose a personalized outgoing phone view, called a Contact Poster, that recipients of your phone call can opt to see. See “Define a Contact Poster.”
- Live voicemail: You can opt to send an incoming phone call to voicemail while reading a live machine transcription—and pick up the active call if you want to speak to the person. See Read Live Voicemail and Answer. With Silence Unknown Calls and Messages enabled, unidentified callers go straight to Live Voicemail. See “Silence Unknown Callers and Messages.”
FaceTime:
FaceTime received probably its most-requested update, FaceTime on Apple TV, along with several other tweaks and big changes:
- Apple TV support for FaceTime: You can now use your iPhone or iPad as the camera and mic and the display attached your Apple TV for viewing. See “Set Up FaceTime on an Apple TV.”
- External camera (iPad only): Apple now lets you use a built-in camera on an external display plugged into an iPad (now also supported) or directly plug in a USB webcam. See “Set Audio and Video Options in iOS/iPadOS.”
- Video “voicemail” for FaceTime: If you don’t reach someone via FaceTime, you can now leave an audio or video message. See “Take Action When Unanswered.”
- Silence Unknown Callers: To avoid being notified by unwanted calls, FaceTime can decline any incoming call that’s not from someone in your contacts. See “Silence Unknown Callers and Messages.”
- FaceTime audio/video interfaces changes: Apple made minor changes to the video options in iOS 17/iPadOS 17 and a major reorganization in Sonoma:
- iOS 17/iPadOS 17 intensity sliders: For Portrait and Studio Light, you can choose to apply a percentage of the effect using a slider. See “Use Control Center for Audio/Video Options.”
- Sonoma FaceTime audio/video menu: macOS Sonoma promoted the video () menu as a central control for Center Stage, Portrait, Studio Light, Reactions, and Mic Mode. See “Sonoma Moves Controls to a Menu.”
- Augmented reality and hand gestures for reactions: You can use gestures or tap or click icons to produce animated reactions that may track your hands or fill the screen. Reactions work on any videoconferencing app. See “Reactions.”
- Watch upgrades for FaceTime: watchOS now supports Group FaceTime audio calls. And if someone leaves you a FaceTime video message, you can view it on your Watch. This is noted throughout the FaceTime section.
Messages:
- Direct macOS Tapback selection: Slipped into a macOS Sonoma update, 14.1, Control-click/right-click a message and then directly select a tapback icon. See “Act Within a Conversation.”
- Catch up to missed messages: In Messages, you can now* click the “catch-up arrow” icon to jump back to the last message you read and then swipe right to create a reply. See “Act Within a Conversation.”
- Improved search filters in Message: Instead of searching everything as flat text, Messages now lets you filter by person and other aspects. See “Search Conversations.”
- Swipe to reply: Instead of using a more convoluted process to reply to a message within a conversation, you can now swipe. See “Nested Reply.”
- Better iMessage-like features in MMS groups: Apple has extended versions of editing, effects, replies, and tapbacks into MMS texting groups. See “The Cans and Cannots of iMessage and SMS/MMS.”
- Transcription of audio messages: Messages now automatically transcribes audio messages. See “Pass Audio Messages.”
- Check In for safety: Apple added Check In to iOS 17, which lets you share—with someone I’d call a “safety partner”—where you’re headed or that you want to show you’re able to respond after a period of time. See “Protect Yourself with Check In.”
- Message sorting by SIM: With any SIM/eSIM combo, you can have your messages sorted out by the SIM instead of person. See “Use Filtering for SIM Message Sorting, Too.”
- Live Location: If someone is sharing their location within you, Messages now shows the city or other identifying location they’re in below their avatar and name. See “Share Location in Messages.”
- Auto-delete verification codes: Messages can automatically delete conversations that are simply a text message with a second-factor verification code. See “Delete Verification Codes in Messages.”
- Sync Messages syncing via iCloud: Additional settings sync across your devices if you enable Messages in iCloud. See ”Archive with Messages in iCloud.”
Miscellaneous:
- Sensitive media warnings: Apple lets you block images, video, stickers, and Contact Posters (also new) that your device believes contain nudity. See “Block Sensitive Media in Messages” and “Block Sensitive Media in Contact Posters.”
- Video composition (Mac only): With all video apps on a Mac with a Studio Display or while using an iPhone as Continuity Camera, you can zoom from 0.5x to 2x and pan. See “Zoom and Pan.”
- Proximity SharePlay activation: You can hold two iPhones near each other to start SharePlay. See “Stream Together with SharePlay.”
- Apple Cash now called Apple Cash: Apple called their person-to-person payment feature Apple Cash or Cash everywhere but in iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS, where it was labeled Apple Pay or Pay. As of iOS 17/iPadOS 17 and watchOS 10, there’s no longer a need for confusion. See Use “Apple Cash for Personal Payments.”
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