Apple FaceTime URL Scheme not initiating call

Question

Using Apple's URL Scheme Reference for FaceTime Links on a website, the link opens the FaceTime app but doesn't pass the number/email to be called or start the FaceTime call.

<a href="facetime:[e-mail]">Connect using FaceTime</a>

Is this scheme still supported? Any thoughts?

Additional Info Edit: This is the actual code I'm using:

<a href="facetime:[e-mail]">Apple FaceTime</a>

This image shows the popup asking if I wish to place a FaceTime call after clicking the link:

This image shows the open FaceTime app where nothing happens.

Answer 1

Essentially, wait for the bug fix. As I responded to your comment on my post, and for other's sake: Yes. It's a bug with iOS. I've reported it with Apple and they've currently fixed with the latest Beta of iOS. They just need to push this fix out.

Answer 2

When you click on facetime URL from a webpage it'll prompt user for permission. Auto call initiation will only work from native apps and won't work from webpages.

From FacetimeLinks Reference

When a user taps a FaceTime link in a webpage, iOS confirms that the user really wants to initiate a FaceTime call before proceeding. When an app opens a URL with the facetime scheme, iOS opens the FaceTime app and initiate the call without prompting the user. When opening FaceTime URLs on OS X, the system always prompts the user before initiating a call.

Answer 3

it's worth noting that this is an iOS 8 issue on Safari. We've been struggling with a web app we developed on iOS 7 for a little while.

This morning I thought I'd try Chrome on iOS 8 just to check and it worked perfectly. Link clicked, asked me to confirm I wanted to FaceTime the number and launched and called the the number as expected.

We still need to get this working on Safari but thought this might help focus on where the problem is occurring as up until now I was treating this as a Facetime bug and it appears it's a Safari bug.

Hope this is helpful,

Stuart