iOS 27 Improves FaceTime in Three Ways, Including Dual Capture

Thursday June 11, 2026 6:27 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

iOS 27 includes three enhancements for FaceTime, with the most notable one being a dual camera feature on some newer iPhone models.

iOS 27 and FaceTime Feature
On the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air, a Dual Capture feature allows you to record video of yourself and what is in front of you at the same time. Starting with iOS 27, this feature is now supported in the FaceTime app on these devices, allowing you to show both your front and rear camera views on a video call.

9to5Mac tested the feature on the iOS 27 beta, as seen in the screenshot below. Tapping on the camera flip button in the bottom-left corner of the viewfinder automatically turns on Dual Capture mode and begins showing the rear camera view alongside the front camera view. You can turn off the front camera view at any time if you prefer to.

If the person on the other end of the call has an older iPhone, they can still view your dual camera feed as long as their device is running iOS 27.

The other two FaceTime improvements on iOS 27:

Improved FaceTime quality on poor connections
Live Captions are now available in Traditional Chinese

iOS 27 is currently available in developer beta, with a public beta to follow in July. The update is expected to be released widely in September.

Related Roundups: iOS 27, iPadOS 27

Tag: FaceTime Guide

Related Forum: iOS 27

Popular Stories

Which iOS 27 CarPlay Features Actually Work in Your Car?

Thursday September 17, 2026 4:17 am PDT by Tim Hardwick

In iOS 27, available now, CarPlay gets its biggest update in years, but some features depend on what type of car you have rather than your iPhone model. Some of the biggest additions won't do anything in the vast majority of vehicles on the road today. Here's how the new features pan out. Works in Any CarPlay Vehicle Custom widgets: In iOS 27, CarPlay is no longer limited to Apple's handful ...

• 54 comments

iOS 27.0.1 is Coming Soon

Wednesday September 23, 2026 1:06 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol

After releasing iOS 27 last week, Apple is already testing a follow-up iOS 27.0.1 update for iPhones, according to MacRumors logs. iOS 27.0.1 will likely be a minor update with bug fixes and/or security patches. Shortly after Apple launches new iPhone models, some software bugs are usually discovered as the devices get into the hands of millions of customers around the world. This year, so...

• 42 comments

Apple Confirms iPhone 18 Pro Bug Fix Update is Coming Next Week

Thursday September 24, 2026 6:10 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Apple has confirmed to 9to5Mac's Benjamin Mayo that it plans to release a software update early next week with a fix for a Face ID issue affecting some iPhone 18 Pro users. Yesterday, we reported that Apple is testing iOS 27.0.1, which is likely to be the update with the...

• 31 comments

Top Rated Comments

Slix

18 weeks ago

Why is this feature not available on every device capable of running iOS 27? This feels like the group FaceTime limitation all over again.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

fatTribble

18 weeks ago

I don't know anyone who would use FaceTime and never really understood it. Perhaps it's useful within a family. But other than that, it seems like a headache to keep tabs on which friends or acquaintances use iPhones and who are on Android, when ubiquitous third-party options do exist that work across ecosystems.

I have one friend who has an Android phone.
All of my friends and family have iPhones.
I use FaceTime most days.
But everyone is different.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Parowdy

18 weeks ago

The "transmit" side of this feature requires BOTH cameras to be active simultaneously. Which implies enough bandwidth, enough ISP capacity, enough video encode capacity.
Older phones probably just don't have the HW for at least one of these three.

I don’t know. Remember the iPhone X keynote? Apple literally had third party developers on stage to showcase their double take app. So to some degree it was already possible 9 whole years ago.

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Johnny907

18 weeks ago

Why is this feature not available on every device capable of running iOS 27? This feels like the group FaceTime limitation all over again.

Because it is. As I pointed out elsewhere, 3rd Party apps have been taking advantage of front and rear cams at the same time for years and there is zero functional reason why this is exclusive to the very latest phones only other than Apple greed.

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)