I am trying to understand the relationship between the iPhone and my Mac desktop when I have set my phone to ring on, and calls to be controlled from, the iMac. I like this feature because I can use the iMac as a VERY high quality speakerphone, which is very convenient, but I would like to understand what about this has triggered FaceTime. Recently some voice calls come in on Face Time on both the iPhone and the Mac. That was not true for a long time but now is. Some voice calls come in on Face Time even when I am out of my house and far away from the iMac. Why? Are there aspects of this that could be useful to me that I don’t know about? Thanks for any light you can throw on it.
The WHY here is simply that I would like to understand what is going on. I had my phone set to use the iMac when they were physically close, but that never triggered FaceTime. But within the last month or so many iPhone voice calls arrive on FaceTime, both when I am near the Mac and far from it. I don’t know why and would like to. I don’t think I’ve changed any settings on the phone or the desktop. (I have within the last week switched to a new Mac Studio from my former late 2014 27 inch retina iMac, but this started to happen weeks before that.) BTW I was the one who commented about the M2 chip arriving just before I even received my M1 powered Studio. I don’t want to get into an argument with you as you are far too knowledgeable, but this is not like what automakers do. In cars, the newest stuff starts to appear in the most expensive models and then drips down to lesser ones over time. Partly that is to keep the newest stuff exclusive. Apple has done the opposite, and even if the version of the M2 chip that is appearing now in laptops is not a top of the line one, the M2 is still the latest technology and its appearance makes it clear that before too long my spanking new Studio will be marked for obsolescence.
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Daniel Joseph
Note that the Mac doesn't have a "Phone" app nor does it have a connection to a mobile network. EVERY phone call you make or receive on your Mac is a FaceTime call.
If you go into FaceTime, Preferences on your Mac you can see in the Settings tab "You can be reaches for FaceTime at:" and a list. If someone tries to call you at one of the phone numbers or email addresses in the list, your Mac will "ring." The same list is in Settings, FaceTime on your iPhone. But of course your phone number is tied to the Phone app there to so regular non-FaceTime calls to your phone number will go to the Phone app, not FaceTime on your iPhone.
Also note that someone calling you may not be paying attention to which number/email address they are using. So they click on your Contact and if your email address is the primary contact method then the call may be placed as FaceTime instead of over the mobile system. Doesn't really matter, but could explain why you sometimes get calls on your Mac + iPhone and sometimes just iPhone.