How-to

How to turn off FaceTime on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Chance Miller | Jan 28 2019 - 5:08 pm PT

Earlier today, a nasty FaceTime bug was uncovered that affects users of iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The bug allows someone to hear your audio on FaceTime, even if you don’t answer. If you want to protect yourself as best you can, here’s how to turn off FaceTime entirely.

Of note, disabling FaceTime on one device does not seem to disable it on all of your devices. So, if you have an iPhone, iPad, and Mac, you’ll have to follow these steps on each device. If you do so on your iPhone, it does disable FaceTime on your Apple Watch completely.

How to turn off FaceTime on iPhone or iPad

To disable the feature on your iPhone and iPad, do the following:

Open the Settings application
Scroll down and look for the FaceTime icon
Switch the toggle to gray

How to disable FaceTime on your Mac

To disable Face on your Mac, following the below steps:

Open the FaceTime app on your Mac
Click “FaceTime” in the Menu bar
Click “Turn off FaceTime”

We first reported on this bug earlier today. Essentially, if someone uses FaceTime to call you and you don’t answer, they can hear what you are saying anyway by following the correct steps. Further, they can even receive video if you press the power button your device.

In a statement, Apple says that it is aware of the bug and will release an update to fix it “later this week.” In the interim, the best way to protect yourself is to disable FaceTime completely on all of your devices using the aforementioned steps.

Read our full coverage of the bug here.

For more help getting the most out of your Apple devices, check out our how to guide as well as the following articles: