Facetime issues with iPhone 4 on iOS 5 beta 7

[Bjornsitte]

Can't get Facetime to activate. I'm asked for my apple id password then stuck on, "waiting for activation" I can receive Facetime calls on my phone from my computer via my email address when on wi-fi but nothing through the phone number. I'm on Cricket and I do know we don't have a data package (yet) so this is ONLY referring to Facetime calls on wi-fi. On my MBP I can choose to make calls through email address or phone number but no such choice on the phone...

[Bjornsitte]

Found this on another forum ;).

[QUOTE] The iPhone uses a phone number for FaceTime by default, and there's actually no way to turn this off. SMS is used to register the phone number, presumably for verification purposes.



Prior to iOS 5, you couldn't use an Apple ID for FaceTime on the iPHone at all -- only the phone number. iOS 5 adds the Apple ID capability that the iPod touch and iPad 2 have, but still uses the phone number by default, and there's actually no way to switch this off. Note that the same behaviour also appears to apply to iMessage.



While theoretically you should be able to register for FaceTime using an Apple ID even if you can't do the SMS registration, since the phone number requirement is a built-in default, it wouldn't surprise me if the inability to register the phone number is preventing FaceTime from being enabled at all, since it can't get past that stage.



It might actually be worth filing an enhancement request to suggest that it should be possible to enable FaceTime on the iPhone without requiring the use of the phone number. This would probably impact the ability to dynamically switch from a voice call to a FaceTime call, however. [QUOTE]


and.....


[QUOTE] Actually, I dont' think the phone number requirement is going to disappear as it's part of the seamless and intuitive behaviour of FaceTime for iPhone users. Normal users are still thinking in terms of phone numbers (you're "calling" or "texting" someone), plus the use of a phone number requires absolutely no additional setup for the end user to start using FaceTime or iMessage -- it just works right out of the box in almost all normal cases.



Consider also that the use of a phone number for FaceTime allows for a seamless transition between a voice call and a FaceTime call, as the iPhone already knows the number of the person you're talking to. Trying to associate a phone number with an e-mail address (presumably via contacts) would be considerably more complicated and error-prone. Similarly, using a phone number for iMessage allows users to send out messages without having to decide or even think about whether they're using the SMS network or the iMessage network. It's actually a very elegant design hampered only by the reuqirement that SMS messages be used to register phone numbers (presumably to prevent possible number spoofing).



The use of an e-mail address and Apple ID has been in many ways a concession to getting the feature working on non-phone devices, and the addition of it to the iPhone for those users who have more than one device (one FaceTime "e-mail" can ring or message an iPhone and an iPad, whereas the phone number only worked for the iPhone).



That said, I think it's still worth the OP filing a bug report to make sure that the behaviour is more consistent if nothing else. There may also be something going on under-the-hood beyond the simple inability to perform the SMS registration. In particular, I think that it should still be possible to sign in with an Apple ID even if FaceTime's phone numbrer registration isn't working for whatever reason. [QUOTE]




So, no SMS, no FaceTime....