Facetime is an application developed by Apple to be used in its various products such as iPhone, iPad and also MacBook. It enables 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 required a Wi-Fi connection to work, but after the release of iOS 7 and onwards, people can also use Facetime over cellular networks like 3G or LTE. However, unfortunately, 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 another Android emulator on the market such as Youwave or Bluestack to emulate Facetime on your PC, at the moment it cannot be done.
In terms of purchase cost, it costs nothing since the application is already pre-installed on your Apple devices and you can use Wi-Fi connection and cellular network. The only cost of money that you have to pay is the subscription of your cellular network for your devices which usually covers also the data coverage and also your internet bills. However, Facetime can also only work 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 it shouldn’t be a 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 cellular data bill will largely depend on how long you are using Facetime. If you have a data plan below 1GB per month, you need to keep an eye on your Facetime usage as it is a video app and therefore it will consume and transfer a large amount of data. The best way if you subscribe to a plan lower than 1GB is to simply use Wi-Fi. Until now, most of the cellular network providers in the world support Facetime. And if you really want Facetime to cost you nothing, just find any free Wi-Fi connection and log into your Facetime to connect with someone. However, the smooth connection of Facetime communication is highly dependent on the speed of the Internet and Wi-Fi connection. So don’t expect much from that connection.
Facetime does not use minutes as a normal mobile phone minute coverage plan. Video communication takes place over the cellular data network via 3G or LTE. This data plan is typically covered by the mobile data network by measuring the amount of data usage you used per month. You can check with your mobile operator about data subscription. Typically, there will be the unlimited data plan where you can upload and download as much data over the internet as you can and only pay a fixed amount per month. There is also the fixed data plan, such as 1GB, 5GB, etc., in which you will also pay a fixed amount per month. However, with this plan, once your data usage exceeds the allowance, it will begin to charge you for the data usage that was used. So keep in mind that every time you use Facetime to make video calls, 3-5MB 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, since Facetime only uses phone numbers as the 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 would definitely be here to stay and change the way we communicate with others.