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Comment by randomdata | Hacker News Reader

Unfortunately, calls with more than two people seem to fall apart quickly if the network connection isn't perfect, even where Meets, Zoom, etc. work flawlessly.

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This substantially the opposite of my experience so I’d bet there is some factor for proximity to CDNs or traffic shaping done by your ISP. FaceTime is rock-solid; Zoom is also good but has noticeably lower video quality (but good noise handling). Meet’s native apps are good but their browser UI is coded to break Firefox so I don’t use it much.

So it sounds like Facetime's Firefox support is better in your experience?

The benefit of FaceTime being an open standard.

It’s not an open standard

Nor does it currently work in Firefox. Hence the continuation of the joke.

It was originally announced as an open standard, though. Anyone who remembers Steve Jobs would have caught on. It is easy for us old-timers to forget how long ago that was now, so I extend my apologies to the youngsters.

Hahaha you’re right! I remember jobs saying that, or was it iMessage He was talking about?

I’d flip it the other way: Google decided to remove the benefits of portability, similar to how Zoom removed the benefits of being able to use their service without installing a client first.

FaceTime is limited to Apple devices until iOS 15 allows anyone with a browser to join a call, so you’d think they’d be emphasizing the benefits of portability more.

Facetime doesn't work in any browser, does it? On macOS and iOS it uses a dedicated app, the protocol is proprietary so no 3rd part clients exist?

FaceTime is coming to the web

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/7/22522889/apple-facetime-an...

Agreed. For me, the hallmark of a good system is being able to forget that I'm using it. That has never happened to me with Facetime.

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