FaceTime for Mac 2.0 – UI difficulties
Skype for the Mac is kind of a CPU hog, so I’ve been looking for another solution.
I recently used Google Voice/Chat/Hangouts, which is kind of low-fi, but worked pretty well. The browser plugin is quickly installed. Although it didn’t work in Opera, it naturally worked in Chrome. It offered the UI that we’ve all come to expect from Google: bare-bones and adequate.
When everybody involved has an Apple device, FaceTime seems like a logical alternative to Skype and Google Voice. So what kind of user interface does the OS X version have? Well, it’s the same stripped, feature-less interface as that found on iOS.
- There is no way to mute the other party (you can mute yourself though)
- There is no way to change the ring tone
- You can’t set the ring tone for a given contact
- You can’t see if a contact is online
- There’s no way to send chat messages on it
- When you click a name, it calls that person immediately; accidental clicks are common
- Setting favorites is not very intuitive
- You can’t turn off the camera at all
- I’m serious, video calls only, even if you’re having bandwidth problems or don’t want to send video
- You can’t look at the damned thing without staring at yourself
- It’s still on…even after you’ve quit the application; you have to remember to actually turn it off to avoid having people call you
- You can’t keep the window on top or show a thumbnail (as Skype does)
- If you’re logged in with the same account on a different computer, it just helpfully shows a crossed-out camera icon with no indication of what you have to do to fix it.
Why do these companies have to start from scratch with each application? Including some of the features above would be far from feature-itis. You can’t ping a quick message and ask whether that person has time to chat or wants to chat with video. As it is, FaceTime is an old-time telephone. You pick a person you want to talk to and call them. It’s no better than 30 years ago.