Facetime is an application developed by Apple to be used on its various products like iPhone, iPad, and also MacBook. It allows users of Apple mobile devices to seamlessly connect and communicate with other users. It allows you to make video calls through your contact email or also your mobile phone number. Basically, it is a video telephony as well as Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). Before iOS 6, Facetime requires a Wi-Fi connection to work, but after the release of iOS 7 onwards, people can also use Facetime over cellular networks like 3G or LTE. Unfortunately, however, Apple does not support any installation of Facetime on a PC. Like any other Apple product, most of its software is proprietary and only allows the product to be used within the Apple product and ecosystem. This is one of the ways that Apple controls and maintains its products in a close environment. It does not allow much freedom for integration with another external system. And if you are also wondering if you can use an emulator like other Android Emulator on the market like Youwave or Bluestack to emulate Facetime on your PC, it can’t be done at the moment.
In terms of purchase cost, it costs nothing as the app is already pre-installed on your Apple devices and can use Wi-Fi and cellular network. The only cost of money you have to bear is your cellular network subscription for your devices which normally also covers data coverage and also your internet bills. However, Facetime can also work only on Wi-Fi devices. If you’re wondering about standard Facetime data usage, Facetime uses three megabytes of data per minute of conversation. So if you subscribe to an unlimited data connection, there should be no problem as you are paying a fixed amount of cost regardless of how long you use Facetime. However, if you have an Internet or data subscription that bills you by the minute or hour, the cost of your Internet or mobile data bill will largely depend on how long you use Facetime. If you have a data plan less than 1 GB per month, you should keep an eye on your Facetime usage as it is a video app and therefore will consume and transfer a lot of data. The best way if you subscribe to a less than 1 GB plan is to simply use Wi-Fi. Until now, Facetime is supported by most of the cellular network providers in the world. And if you really want Facetime to cost you nothing, just find any free Wi-Fi connection and log in to your Facetime to connect with someone. However, the smooth connection of Facetime communication highly depends on the speed of Wi-Fi and Internet connection. So don’t expect much from that connection.
Facetime does not use minutes like a normal mobile phone minute coverage plan. The video communication is carried out through the cellular data network via 3G or LTE. This data plan is typically covered by the cellular data network by measuring how much data usage you used per month. You can check with your mobile operator about data subscription. Normally there will be the unlimited data plan where you can upload and download as much data over the internet as you can and you only pay a fixed amount per month. There is also the fixed data plan such as 1GB, 5GB etc where you will also pay a fixed amount per month. However, with this plan, once your data usage exceeds your allowance, you’ll begin charging for the data usage that was used. So keep in mind that every time you use Facetime for video calls, 3-5 MB per minute will be used. So if you don’t have the unlimited plan, check with your network operator how much they charge per MB of data usage. Although Facetime uses phone numbers to connect with others, it does not affect your mobile phone minutes, as Facetime only uses phone numbers as a contact address on the network. Facetime also identifies the email address as the contact address. So you don’t have to worry about any minute usage charges on your cell phone bill as it will only affect the data plan you signed up for. As Apple devices and products become much faster and also much cheaper in the future, Facetime is definitely here to stay and change the way we communicate with others.
