FaceTime has already ruined me when it comes to call quality. With iOS 17, it’s eliminating the only reason I had left to make a regular phone call.
If you’ve never had the chance, make a phone call to someone you know. Chat for a bit, and while you’re doing it, take notice of the audio quality of the call. Then, hang up and call them using FaceTime. Whether it’s a video or audio call, you’ll notice that the audio quality is significantly better. That led me to always start trying to call people who had iPhones with FaceTime instead. However, there was one obvious feature missing.
While the audio quality was much better, it wouldn’t matter if someone was unavailable since FaceTime didn’t support leaving them a message. Apple is finally fixing that with iOS 17. With the upcoming version of the operating system, users will be able to leave a voice or video message if they call someone who is not available.
FaceTime now supports audio and video messages so when users call someone who is not available, they can share a message that can be enjoyed later.
Leaving a video message for someone is a fantastic feature. Audio-only voicemails have, in comparison to the experience you have on a FaceTime call, started to feel less personal to me. A voicemail where you can actually see the person, and their expressions, all in high-quality video and audio, is a much more personal experience for the person leaving and getting the message.
Once the feature rolls out with iOS 17 in the fall, I’ll be hard-pressed to ever make a regular phone call again — at least to someone who has an iPhone. Voicemails were the last remaining feature that FaceTime lacked, and with its inclusion, we can finally break from old-school cellular calls. Kind of like leaving SMS behind for iMessage!
Speaking of FaceTime, it’s finally getting its own app on the Apple TV as well.
