Use FaceTime for audio and video calls - macOS Tutorial

- FaceTime is used for video and audio calls on your Mac, or an iPhone, or iPad. You can do one-on-one calls, or you can do group calls. You will need a built-in webcam and microphone, or you can get an inexpensive USB webcam. If you just want to call somebody directly, you and the person you're calling will need to be signed into an iCloud account. And normal direct calls can be used on a Mac, or an iPhone, or iPad, so from my Mac, I can call somebody on their iPhone. There is another option where you can send a link to somebody and they can join the call even if they don't use iCloud, and even if they're on Windows or an Android device, but we'll cover that in another video. I'm going to launch Facetime from the dock, and it immediately activates my camera and I can see that preview here. If you're not already signed in, you would be prompted to sign in. And I do want to very quickly go into the main FaceTime application menu, then to preferences just to double check that I am signed into the iCloud account that I want to use. Okay, so now I'm going to call somebody, so I can click this new FaceTime button up here at the top, and I'll just need the email address or the phone number associated with their iCloud account. Or in this case, I have people already stored in my address book, so I can just type in a little bit of somebodies name, it searches my address book, it finds them here. And I actually want to call two people, so I can search for two and add them. You can add as many people as you want to this line to start a group call, or you could just call one person if you want. When you're ready to start the call, you can click the FaceTime button, but if you just click FaceTime, it will start a video call. If you want to do audio only, you can click this arrow and do FaceTime audio, but we're going to do video, and now that's going to start. So, in a moment, I believe Garrick will join this call, we'll see him joining right here. And there is, hey Garrick. - Hey, Nick. - [Nick] But the notification that people see when they get a group call can be easy to miss. If it looks like somebody is not joining the call, you can click this ring button and it will send them a more persistent notification, and then they should see that and they'll be able to join. I think Oliver will see that and he'll join, and there he is. - Hey guys, hey. - [Nick] All right, thanks for joining. Let's see some controls you have during a call, we've got these buttons down here at the bottom. You can click this button to mute your microphone, so the other people won't hear you, and I can turn that back on. You can also turn off your camera, sometimes I like to eat lunch during a call, so I can turn off my camera so people don't see me. Over on the left, we can click this button so I can see a list of everybody who's currently in the call. And you can click add people and search for another person, and invite them to the call if you want. But for now, I'm just going to cancel that, and I'm going to close that panel by clicking that button again. There's also an option here to switch to a full screen view, which is a little bit better for a group call. And down here in the bottom right I can see my own camera, And if I click on that I can see myself much larger. If you want to get a better view of how you look during a call, you can click on that. Okay, and then you can click this little double arrow to shrink that back down. Now, I'm going to get out of the full screen view, and there are a couple other options that you can do to adjust your audio and your video during a call. And those are actually controlled in the control center, so if I go to the menu up at the top and click the control center button, we have an option for video effects and microphone effects. If we go to microphone effects, this does depend on the microphone set up that you have, you may not have all of the options. But if you choose voice isolation, what that will do is filter out background noise, if your neighbors are using power tools, it can cut out that noise. Now, wide spectrum is the opposite, it will add in and even accentuate any ambient noise in the room. If you're teaching music lessons and you want all of the sound to get in, that might be a good option, but I'm just going to stick with standard. Now, the other option that's going to help if I enlarge my video so you can see what I look like, if I go back to control center and I choose video effects, you can choose the portrait mode, which will actually blur your background. If you have a background, you don't really want people to see very clearly, you can blur that. And I'm just going to go back to control center, back to video effects, and I'll turn that off again. And of course I can click this button to go back to a normal call. And from here, we can just have our call as normal. And if more people join the call, you can have a large group of people, and the person who is speaking, you'll see their tile will enlarge on the screen to sort of accentuate them. But I think that's really all we need to see for a call, I do want to see what it looks like when I get an incoming call. I'm going to end this, but Garrick, can you call me back? - Sure thing. - [Nick] All right, so all you need to do is click this red button and that will end the call. Now, I'm going to quit the FaceTime application, because I want you to see that you can receive an incoming call, even if the application is not running. (ringtone sound) Now, Garrick is calling me and I see this notification. From here, I could accept the call or I could decline it. Or if you click this arrow next to where it says accept, you could answer it with audio only. For now, I'm just going to decline this call because now we're going to see what it looks like when somebody calls you with a group call. (ringtone sound) You might just see a notification banner like that, which will fade off of the screen, or you might see this more persistent notification where you see the preview and you can accept the call. Let's go ahead and do that now, I'm going to accept it. And in a moment we'll be reconnected. Hey guys - Hey. - Hello. - [Nick] and I do want to mention, if you just see that small notification and if it fades away before you have the opportunity to click on it, you can always click on the clock up in the top right corner to go to notification center and you can find that notification there, you can click on that to join the call. But that's what it looks like when you receive an incoming call, either individually or as a group. Thanks for helping out guys, I'll see you later. - See ya. - [Nick] I'll click the X button to leave the meeting and now we're done. That's how you can use FaceTime for audio and video calls, including group calls.