Facetime audio vs phone call: Everything explained

On iPhone, there are two main ways to make a call, and which is facetime and cellular phone call.

For many, they usually use the default phone call when it comes to audio call, and use facetime video call when it comes to making a video call.

However, one will ask what of facetime audio call, is it better compared to the traditional cellular phone call.

This is what this post is all about, explain facetime audio vs phone call, the difference between them, and which is better of the two.

Let’s proceed.

Table of Contents

Facetime audio vs phone call

The difference between facetime audio vs the default phone call is that facetime audio uses internet, while phone call don’t use internet but rather cellular network service.

As facetime is a voip services, both the video call and audio call uses the internet, while the traditional phone call only uses the cellular network service.

Mostly, we tends to use the default phone call whenever it comes to making an audio call, but on the other hand, facetime audio call seemed to be the best option when it comes to making an audio call.

Reason for that is facetime audio call being very economical compared to cellular phone call especially when you’re using a Wi-Fi.

Let me proceed with the topic of the day, facetime audio vs phone call, their difference and which is better.

FaceTime Audio key takeaways;

Facetime audio call uses the internet.
Facetime audio show up in call log.
Facetime audio call don’t show up in phone bill.
Facetime audio call is very economical especially when making an international call.
Facetime audio call is quite restricted to apple users except when a facetime call link is created.
A user must not have a phone number or sim card in order to use facetime audio call.
It consumes data especially if you’re using a cellular data.

Phone Call key takeaways;

Works on any phone.
Not economical especially when it comes to making international calls.
Phone calls show up in phone bill.
Phone calls show up in call log.
It requires a sim card or eSim, and a network service.

When you take a good look at the key takeaways of phone call and facetime audio call, you will see their differences.

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Now let me go ahead and explain some of them.

Difference between facetime audio vs phone call

Below are their differences;

Facetime Audio	Phone Call
Facetime Audio uses internet	Phone call don’t use internet but rather cellular network service
Facetime audio is very economical especially when it comes to making an international call	The default phone call is not economical especially when it comes to international calls as it attracts higher charges for international calls.
Facetime audio call is only available for Apple users though an apple user can create a link for a non apple user to join in the facetime call	The default phone call is available on all platforms, android, ios, Java
Facetime audio call doesn’t necessarily require a sim card or eSim as long as the user has an apple ID	The default phone call do require a sim card or eSim as phone number is involved when it comes to receiving a call or making a call
Facetime audio call don’t show up in phone bill	Cellular phone call do show up in phone bill
There’s no call hold option in facetime audio call	There’s a call hold option in the default phone call

These are the difference between facetime audio and phone call.

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Facetime audio vs phone call: which is better?

For me, facetime audio call is better as it is very economical especially when it comes to making an international call compared to the default phone call.

Also you can make and receive facetime call without a sim card or eSim, while such is not possible in cellular phone call.

Now where cellular phone call is better than facetime audio call is when there’s no internet connection. As long as there’s no active internet connection like Wi-Fi or cellular data, you can’t use facetime audio call.

If internet connection is very poor, it is quite difficult to use facetime audio call.

Lastly, facetime audio call don’t show up on phone bill. For those that don’t like certain calls to show up on phone bill or phone record, then using facetime audio call is your best option.

Though the likes of Google voice and viber are good as well.

Does FaceTime audio count as a phone call?

Facetime audio call don’t count as a phone call as facetime is a voip services that uses internet.

Facetime is built into Apple’s ecosystem and can be accessed through the FaceTime app.

Both facetime audio call, Whatsapp audio call, even Google voice don’t count as a traditional phone call as they all use internet and not cellular network service.

From a technical perspective, FaceTime Audio does not use a traditional phone line, so it is not considered a phone call in the traditional sense. Instead, it uses the internet to transmit audio data, which is then received by the recipient’s device.

However, from a practical perspective, FaceTime Audio can serve the same purpose as a traditional phone call.

Users can make and receive calls using FaceTime Audio to communicate with people who do not have an Apple device, such as Android or Windows users by creating a facetime link and sharing the link to person’s involved.

FaceTime Audio does not use a traditional phone line, so it is not technically a phone call.

However, it can serve the same purpose as a phone call and may be subject to similar billing practices depending on the user’s carrier and plan.

Does FaceTime audio show up on phone bill?

The answer is no. Facetime audio don’t show up on phone bill except for cellular calls.

As facetime is a voip services that uses internet, it doesn’t show up on phone bill. Aside from facetime, any voip services apps like whatsapp, Skype, Facebook messenger, telegram, viber, signal, Google voice, Google meet, etc don’t show up on phone bill.

Once a call uses internet, it won’t show up on phone bill but rather you will see the accumulated data on your phone bill.

This is the reason why it is recommended to use facetime audio call to make a call that you don’t want to show up on phone bill.

However, only if the recipient is using facetime or will accept the facetime audio call.

Does FaceTime audio show up on phone bill AT&T? The answer is no. For AT&T users, facetime audio call don’t show up on phone bill but rather only cellular phone calls.

Kindly note that some carriers may include FaceTime Audio calls in their data plans, while others may charge separately for them. It is important for users to check with their carrier to understand how FaceTime Audio is classified and billed.

How to change from FaceTime audio to regular call

To change from facetime audio to regular call, all you need to do is to open the contact and tap on the call icon to initiate a regular phone call.

If you’re making a facetime call and wants to switch over to a regular phone call, then you have to end the facetime audio call.

Next is to open the phone app, tap on the recent tab and you will see the contact right there.

What you will do is to tap on the i icon to open the person’s info.

Go ahead and tap on i icon and on the next page, you will see call along with a call icon.

Tap on the call icon and phone call will be initiated.

Now if you have whatsapp installed in your iPhone, you will see two options which says Phone and WhatsApp.

Please tap on the phone option to initiate a cellular phone call.

How to turn off FaceTime audio calls

Kindly note that you cannot turn off facetime audio call but rather you can turn off facetime on your phone.

As long as facetime is enabled on your phone, both the facetime video call and the facetime audio call will be available. So far there’s no option to turn off facetime audio call on iPhone, iPad or Mac.

And with this, I come to the conclusion of today’s question of the day, facetime audio vs phone call.