Iphone contacts behavior

[Chester11]

Hey folks:

Curious if any iphone users can explain how the Iphone contacts are supposed to show if Facetime is available?

In contacts, I'm seeing Video listed, but in some cases, Facetime listed below.

Can anyone explain? I'm guessing is a Facetime user is not available, Facetime is not displayed in contacts?

 

[Hall]

If the contact doesn't use an iOS device, Facetime definitely won't appear. Apple has their own list of all phone numbers and/or email addresses (iCloud accounts) that use iOS and will assign (internally ?) a tag indicating iOS or non-iOS. A plain "video" option could be coming from FB Messenger, WhatsApp, or some other app that allows video calling.

 

[Chester11]

Ah thanks - I wasn't thinking of other apps.

I'm using Facetime, Google Duo, and Skype. If Duo has access to the contacts list, Duo appears in place of video for some contacts, (which makes sense). I wasn't thinking of Skype. (It appears to really get confused if a user has the Duo IOS app installed with Facetime. It appears to show Duo only and no reference to Facetime - which seemed odd).

I didn't realize how confusing it was until I watched my kids try to use the "video" icon call from contacts, only to have the call fail. (In messages, Facetime appears at the top, in contacts it appears in below.)

Update - even more confused - now facetime is showing instead of video call. Weirdness - must be some strange interaction with the duo app.

 

[Hall]

I just looked at a contact that uses an iPhone. On the entries going down the screen, I have "Facetime" with a camera and phone icon meaning I can Facetime this person using either video or voice. Up above, where there's the 5 icons, when I tap the one labeled "video", a 2nd menu pops up with Facetime and WhatsApp listed. For what it's worth, when I tap the "call" icon, I get Mobile, Home, Facetime, and WhatsApp listed.

Now, under the "video" icon, those other apps always show up no matter who the contact is. Using my wife's contact, I can video-call her using WhatsApp or try to. It will fail though because she doesn't use WhatsApp. Anyway, I'm confident that Duo and/or Skype are related to what you're seeing.

 

[Dennywires]

FaceTime will be illuminated under a specific contact if they’re on an iOS device registered to their mobile number or email.