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Helpful Tip: I’ve been writing about Windows for many years and now have an extensive Windows 10 & Windows 11 help area. Please check it out to find lots of additional tutorials and guides while you’re here.
Once you figure out what’s what, it’s actually pretty straightforward to have PC and Android users join the fun of a FaceTime call! (In the above, the street view is the iPhone’s camera, and the lower right is the view of the webcam within the Microsoft Edge browser on the PC) That’s it, you’re on a two person FaceTime call, with one person on an Apple product and the other on a Windows PC! To end the call, you can either tap on “ End” on the top right to drop them or they can “ Leave” by bringing up their on-screen navigational window: On the PC they’ll suddenly see you show up! Then you’re connected! TWO PERSON FACETIME CALL, IPHONE AND WINDOWS PC Want to allow them to join? Tap on the green checkmark icon. Want to give them the boot? Tap on the red “X”. Now you can see your friend in the queue – “Wants to join” – and what name they used (“The Notorious Dr D”). Check on who they are by tapping on “1 person waiting”… You can do this by tapping on “Join”, or, easier, just review the person waiting to join the call. Notice along the top that I haven’t yet joined the call either! It’s as if there’s a separate room that everyone has to “step into”. On the iPhone, meanwhile, I’ve started the call and the screen has switched to this: Meanwhile, on the iPhone… ACCEPTING A NEW PERSON TO YOUR FACETIME CALL That’s how they know they’re not in the call yet, but in the queue. Notice on the top “Waiting to be let in…”. Once they click on “Join” they’ll be in a holding queue for you, the FaceTime call originator, to approve. Notice on the lower left the green “ Join” button: If they don’t click that button, they’ll just look at themselves but never be part of the FaceTime call! They’ll need to allow the browser to access both their microphone and camera to proceed, and once they do, they’ll finally be here: Once they then click on “ Continue“, they’ll have to allow the browser to access their microphone and webcam… Time for them to enter their name, either directly or with a bit of humor. On the PC, meanwhile, once your friend clicks on the embedded FaceTime link, they’ll see something like this in their Web browser: Now you’ll just sit in FaceTime waiting for people to show up… RECEIVING A FACETIME LINK AND JOINING A CALL You can add more verbiage if you want, or you can just send the link (and even to more than one person!) with a tap on the Send icon once you’ve entered the recipient addresses.ĭone. You could, of course, choose to send it via text message, Facebook, or any of a wide variety of different channels. I’m going to just send the link via a Gmail email message, so I’ll tap on the Gmail icon along the bottom. Once you tap on “Create Link”, here’s what you’ll see: Here’s what you’ll see:Īt this point, don’t tap on New FaceTime but instead tap on “ Create Link“: You need to send a link to your PC friend so they can get their Web browser to do the work as needed.
Notice that the process is the same if there are two people on the call or a half-dozen… CREATE A FACETIME GROUP CALLįirst up, fire up FaceTime on your iPhone, iPad or Mac system. Easiest is to start with the iPhone as the initiator of the FaceTime call.
To demonstrate how to do this, it’s going to require me bouncing back and forth between an Apple iPhone and a Windows PC running the latest version of Windows 11 and with Microsoft Edge as the default Web browser. Apple’s been realizing that this closed ecosystem was causing frustration for users, however, and while there aren’t yet apps for Windows or Android the latest generation of Web browsers are more than capable of supporting live two-way video! In other words, yes, you can indeed hook your friend into your FaceTime calls whether they’re on Android, their PC, or they buckle under to peer pressure and buy an iPad or MacBook Air! It used to be the case that FaceTime was for Apple users and it was an exclusive club if you didn’t have gear with an Apple logo on it, you weren’t able to join the club.