Launching Facetime from your app?

Question

I am seeing that you can launch FaceTime from your app via

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@\"facetime://tel-number\"]];
         


        

Answer 1

It is official that you can use Native app URL strings for FaceTime video calls:

facetime:// 14085551234
facetime://user@example.com

Please refer link : https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/featuredarticles/iPhoneURLScheme_Reference/FacetimeLinks/FacetimeLinks.html

Though this feature is supported on all device , you have to change code little bit for iOS 10.0 and above as openURL: is deprecated.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplication/1622961-openurl?language=objc

Please refer code below for current and fallback mechanism, so in this way it will not get rejected by Appstore.

      -(void) callFaceTime : (NSString *) contactNumber
      {
          NSURL *URL = [NSURL URLWithString:[NSString 
              stringWithFormat:@"facetime://%@",  contactNumber]];
        if (@available(iOS 10.0, *)) {
              [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:URL options:@{} 
            completionHandler:^(BOOL success)
            {
              if (success)
            {
                NSLog(@"inside success");
            }
             else
            {
               NSLog(@"error");
             }
          }];
       } 
       else {
       // Fallback on earlier versions

             NSString *faceTimeUrlScheme = [@"facetime://" 
         stringByAppendingString:contactNumber];
        NSURL    *facetimeURL       = [NSURL URLWithString:faceTimeUrlScheme];

    // Facetime is available or not
        if ([[UIApplication sharedApplication] canOpenURL:facetimeURL])
        {
            [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:facetimeURL];
        }
         else
        {
           // Facetime not available
           NSLog(@"Facetime not available");
        }   
    }
  }

in contactNumber either pass phone number or appleid.

   NSString *phoneNumber = @"9999999999";
   NSString *appleId = @"abc@gmail.com";
   [self callFaceTime:appleId];