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 Emulators on the market like Youwave or Bluestack to emulate Facetime on your PC, it cannot 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 you 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 covers data coverage as well and also your internet bills. However, Facetime can also work only on Wi-Fi devices. If you’re wondering about Facetime’s standard data usage, Facetime uses three megabytes of data per minute of conversation. So if you sign up for an unlimited data connection, there shouldn’t be a problem as you’re 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 depend largely 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 will therefore consume and transfer a large amount of data. The best way if you subscribe to a plan less than 1 GB is to just 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 search for any free Wi-Fi connection and sign into your Facetime to connect with someone. However, the smooth connection of Facetime communication is highly dependent 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. Video communication is done through the cellular data network via 3G or LTE. This data plan is normally covered by the cellular data network by measuring how much data usage you used per month. You can check with your mobile phone 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 you only pay a fixed amount per month. There is also the fixed data plan such as 1 GB, 5 GB etc. in which you will also pay a fixed amount per month. However, with this plan, once your data usage exceeds your allowance, it will start charging you for the data usage that was used. So keep in mind that every time you use Facetime for video calls, 3-5MB will be used per minute. 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 subscribed to. As Apple devices and products become much faster and also much cheaper in the future, Facetime will definitely be here to stay and change the way we communicate with others.