That included a recent banner at CES, which triumphantly proclaimed: “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.
The bug is an embarrassing incident for Apple, which has long emphasized its focus on privacy as a business and within its products. The feature was absent when iOS 12 shipped to all in September and, instead, it arrived with the launch of iOS 12.1 in October. Apple never provided a reason for the delay. Start a Group FaceTime call In FaceTime, tap New FaceTime near the top of the screen. It was added then removed from the beta version of iOS 12 in August while it took time to roll out to all users. In the FaceTime app, you can have up to 32 participants in a Group FaceTime call (not available in all countries or regions). It’s interesting to note that the group calling feature actually took longer than planned to arrive in iOS following a hiccup.
Group facetime update#
“We’re aware of this issue and we have identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week,” a spokesperson said. Group FaceTime calls are easier to start than group audio calls because you can call everyone at once instead of having to wait while merging calls. Though the recipient’s phone display continues showing the incoming call screen, their microphone/camera are streaming.Īpple told us and other media that it plans to issue a more permanent solution in the coming days. Weirder yet: If the recipient presses the volume down button or the power button to try to silence or dismiss the call, their camera turns on as well. A few quick taps, and FaceTime immediately trips over itself and inexplicably fires up the recipient’s microphone without them actually accepting the call. While we’re opting to not outline the steps here, the bug seems to trick the recipient’s phone into thinking a group call is already ongoing. The bug relies on what appears to be a nasty logic screwup in FaceTime’s group call system. The vulnerability was unearthed on Monday it is activated when a user initiates a group call but adds themselves as a participant, as we explained in our earlier post: