Apple has announced one of the biggest changes made to its application, Facetime at the conference, WWDC. The audio-video calling application, Facetime, which is the exclusive feature of iOS is now getting its launch for android also. Apple has decided to launch Facetime available to wider users and give a competition to the Zoom and Google Meet. Till now Facetime was one of the best reasons to attract people to the iPhone, but its introduction to android and Windows users shocked everyone. The expansion of its walled-garden strategy to bringing the application to a broader user is considered a nice step was taken by Tim Cook. The introduction of Facetime to android users also is thought to give great competition to the Zoom and Google Meet apps.
What is FaceTime
Facetime was introduced to the iPhone in 2010, was considered the best audio-video calling app for Apple users. Since then it has got the most surprising update at this WWDC meet during these 11 years. Although restricted to the iPhone only and not a feature that Android users can be honored with, yet it is the most loved of the features of the iPhone. Facetime is a free application running both on Wi-Fi and cellular data.
Boundaries on FaceTime Users on Android
Having announced to let the Facetime for the android users also, Apple has put some boundaries on its use by the non-Apple users. Rather the android and Windows users can only use this app for joining the call via a link sent from any Apple phone. They will not be able to place a call. This strategy not only gave chance to peep into the iPhone’s best apps but the control of Apple over its own apps continued. So we can’t say that Apple has come out of its walled-garden marketing strategy but just letting the non-Apple users a taste of its applications. This way Apple has allowed a glimpse of its core applications by still having the control in its own hands.
Competition With Zoom
However, the other video calling apps have risen to a boom during this pandemic when all the in-person meets have been shifted to a virtual meeting facilitated only through these apps like Zoom and Google Meet available on the android platform. Apple, after almost one and half years, made this surprising decision and made it public on the WWDC platform. FaceTime will get a new feature FaceTime Links to generate a link to invite the non-Apple users to join. This updation can give a tough competition to the Zoom and Google Meet. But some people criticized this step by saying that this updation in Apple should have done last year so that a wider audience might have profited from this.