Apple Disables Group FaceTime as Temporary Workaround to Major Privacy Bug
Apple appears to have disabled Group FaceTime on its server side as a temporary workaround for a major bug discovered today that allowed anyone who places a FaceTime call to listen to audio from the recipient without them answering the call. The bug even extended to video in some circumstances.
As spotted by Mark Gurman, Apple's system status page now says "Group FaceTime is temporarily unavailable" as of 7:16 p.m. Pacific Time.
As a result, it is no longer possible to add your personal phone number to a Group FaceTime call, which was the underlying cause of the bug. Multiple editors on our team have confirmed being unable to add a phone number to a FaceTime call. One-on-one FaceTime calls continue to work normally.
Apple has promised to release a software update that permanently addresses the bug "later this week," and given the serious privacy implications, the company likely has engineers working on the update as we speak.
Group FaceTime is limited to iOS 12.1 and later.
Popular Stories
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
A decade ago, developer Riley Testut released the GBA4iOS emulator for iOS, and since it was against the rules at the time, Apple put a stop to downloads. Emulators have been a violation of the App Store rules for years, but that changed on April 5 when Apple suddenly reversed course and said that it was allowing retro game emulators on the App Store. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel ...
iOS 18 is expected to be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. iOS 18 is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri and many apps, and Apple plans to add RCS support to the Messages app for an improved texting experience between iPhones and Android devices. The update is also expected to introduce a more...
Top Rated Comments
What would be shameful is rushing out a quick fix that solves this problem but possibly introduces other ones. Apple has taken the quickest possible step to protect users and now will fix the bug. They did this 100% the right way so far.