5 ms·

As is, or will it be made good? The UX of the current version is poor on iPad / OSX. That was fine in the past - Skype was the only competition and that was hor

As is, or will it be made good? The UX of the current version is poor on iPad / OSX. That was fine in the past - Skype was the only competition and that was horrible - but with Jitsi, Zoom and Discord killing it they've fallen miles behind.

minimaxir 5y ago
iOS 15 will have a lot of new Zoom-similar features. (e.g. Grid View and Backgrounds)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- radicalbyte 5y ago
  What about the really basic stuff: * Broken contact list (it's worse than Skype!). * Broken screen orientation. * Ringing on every Apple device you own under the sun. With their A-Team now on the case I'm sure that it'll get fixed.
  - mercutio2 5y ago
    What's broken about the contact list? What's wrong with ringing all your Apple devices?
    - pyr0hu 5y ago
      parent wants Apple to build a telekinetic device that can read parent's mind to decide which device to ring (obligatory /s)
    - radicalbyte 5y ago
      The weird mix of emails/phone numbers, which isn't obvious to merge/fix. It's an Apple product, I expect more. Ringing: because I have three Apple devices (MBA, MBP, iPad) and it doesn't automatically ring on the device I'm using. Again, that would be fine for someone else, but I expect more from Apple. It's like I don't get mad if a junior developer in my team makes a mess in PHP, but I would if a senior did. I have the same feeling for Apple vs MS/Facebook et al. Apple have shown that they can do awesome (the entire Macbook experience, the wifi, instant sleep which alway works.. fantastic hardware) so it hurts when they don't live up to their high standards.
      - mercutio2 5y ago
        Ah, so when you go to autocomplete, you’d like there to be less of a mixture of different handles, and more like Messages, which has one row per person? The two are much more similar in iOS 15.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    >* Ringing on every Apple device you own under the sun. You can control which device(s) ring: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/phone-calls-ipad-ipod-touch-mac-iphf90f372f0/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/phone-calls-ipad-ipod...
  - pridkett 5y ago
    The screen orientation thing gets me - and it’s been that way for YEARS. In short, unlike most every other app which seems to actually use the orientation APIs, Facetime fakes it. This works fine on your phone, but if you’re trying to airplay the call up to your TV so you can see people a little larger, nope. You’re stuck in portrait mode forever. You’re better off asking the other person to rotate their phone.
- _rs 5y ago
  I hope it would let you choose whether or not the video feeds are cropped in or not, but I haven't seen anything to support this. One issue I have with group FaceTime that I noticed during the pandemic is that it crops off the sides of the video to make it square, so when you're video chatting with a bunch of people (like, say, your family all sitting in front of an iPad) you can't see everyone in frame even though the camera is capturing them. With group FaceTime portrait/landscape mode doesn't make any difference to even attempt to address this, like it can for 1-1 FaceTime calls.
HatchedLake721 5y ago
I think you're missing the point who FaceTime is made for. Jitsi - heard of it once ages ago, never used it Zoom - for business Discord - gamers/teens? They can carry on "killing it", but I'm not going to ask my mom to install and signup for Discord. I'll FaceTime her or send her a link she can 1-click join.
- fastball 5y ago
  Zoom is for everyone at this point, because a huge number of people have had to install it for WFH/SFH.
- ninkendo 5y ago
  I think Zoom is more "For everyone" than just for business. At least until they decide to start charging for it.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    It is amazing to me that FAMAG companies let Zoom into the video call market. A half competent cross platform implementation would have left no room for Zoom. My parents use Zoom now, and my distant non tech literate cousin in a developing country used Zoom to broadcast a funeral from abroad during COVID to all the extended family members around the world.
    - zoover2020 5y ago
      Don't forget Amazon Chime! :')
  - not2b 5y ago
    WebEx used to be the business solution. Zoom destroyed them. Many companies that used to use WebEx dumped it in favor of Zoom.
- teawrecks 5y ago
  Discord voice chat works in browser without an account. Not sure about video, though. Discord has it's bugs, but IMO it's categorically better than zoom.

minimaxir 5y ago

iOS 15 will have a lot of new Zoom-similar features. (e.g. Grid View and Backgrounds)

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
radicalbyte 5y ago
What about the really basic stuff: * Broken contact list (it's worse than Skype!). * Broken screen orientation. * Ringing on every Apple device you own under the sun. With their A-Team now on the case I'm sure that it'll get fixed.
- mercutio2 5y ago
  What's broken about the contact list? What's wrong with ringing all your Apple devices?
  - pyr0hu 5y ago
    parent wants Apple to build a telekinetic device that can read parent's mind to decide which device to ring (obligatory /s)
  - radicalbyte 5y ago
    The weird mix of emails/phone numbers, which isn't obvious to merge/fix. It's an Apple product, I expect more. Ringing: because I have three Apple devices (MBA, MBP, iPad) and it doesn't automatically ring on the device I'm using. Again, that would be fine for someone else, but I expect more from Apple. It's like I don't get mad if a junior developer in my team makes a mess in PHP, but I would if a senior did. I have the same feeling for Apple vs MS/Facebook et al. Apple have shown that they can do awesome (the entire Macbook experience, the wifi, instant sleep which alway works.. fantastic hardware) so it hurts when they don't live up to their high standards.
    - mercutio2 5y ago
      Ah, so when you go to autocomplete, you’d like there to be less of a mixture of different handles, and more like Messages, which has one row per person? The two are much more similar in iOS 15.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  >* Ringing on every Apple device you own under the sun. You can control which device(s) ring: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/phone-calls-ipad-ipod-touch-mac-iphf90f372f0/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/phone-calls-ipad-ipod...
- pridkett 5y ago
  The screen orientation thing gets me - and it’s been that way for YEARS. In short, unlike most every other app which seems to actually use the orientation APIs, Facetime fakes it. This works fine on your phone, but if you’re trying to airplay the call up to your TV so you can see people a little larger, nope. You’re stuck in portrait mode forever. You’re better off asking the other person to rotate their phone.
_rs 5y ago
I hope it would let you choose whether or not the video feeds are cropped in or not, but I haven't seen anything to support this. One issue I have with group FaceTime that I noticed during the pandemic is that it crops off the sides of the video to make it square, so when you're video chatting with a bunch of people (like, say, your family all sitting in front of an iPad) you can't see everyone in frame even though the camera is capturing them. With group FaceTime portrait/landscape mode doesn't make any difference to even attempt to address this, like it can for 1-1 FaceTime calls.

HatchedLake721 5y ago

I think you're missing the point who FaceTime is made for. Jitsi - heard of it once ages ago, never used it Zoom - for business Discord - gamers/teens? They can carry on "killing it", but I'm not going to ask my mom to install and signup for Discord. I'll FaceTime her or send her a link she can 1-click join.

fastball 5y ago
Zoom is for everyone at this point, because a huge number of people have had to install it for WFH/SFH.
ninkendo 5y ago
I think Zoom is more "For everyone" than just for business. At least until they decide to start charging for it.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  It is amazing to me that FAMAG companies let Zoom into the video call market. A half competent cross platform implementation would have left no room for Zoom. My parents use Zoom now, and my distant non tech literate cousin in a developing country used Zoom to broadcast a funeral from abroad during COVID to all the extended family members around the world.
  - zoover2020 5y ago
    Don't forget Amazon Chime! :')
- not2b 5y ago
  WebEx used to be the business solution. Zoom destroyed them. Many companies that used to use WebEx dumped it in favor of Zoom.
teawrecks 5y ago
Discord voice chat works in browser without an account. Not sure about video, though. Discord has it's bugs, but IMO it's categorically better than zoom.