1TapFaceTime, a new free app available in the App Store, aims to make the process of starting a FaceTime call with your contacts a whole lot easier.
Given the choice, I would choose FaceTime from my computer 100% of the time over iPhone. This is entirely due to how tedious it is to find a contact and initiate the call.
Luckily for me, 1Tapps has stepped up and simplified this process with 1TapFaceTime, which allows me to add simple one-touch icons to Springboard. I simply click on the contact I want to FaceTime and the call starts.
The user interface couldn’t be any easier to deal with, though it’s quite possibly the ugliest I’ve seen to date.
Simply type a name for the shortcut into the convenient text box and select a photo. If you’d rather not use a photo, you can also select from a Red or Blue FaceTime default icon.
Once you are finished, the app will launch Safari as a bookmark is created and then you are prompted to save it to your home screen.
FaceTime Simplified
Now you simply click any of your created icons and you can instantly start a FaceTime call.
You gotta love what the community consistently brings to the iOS table. Developers keep finding ways to improve the user experience and make our lives a little easier.
If you are curious how in the world this is accomplished, I have a treat for you. You see, the iPhone and iPad both incorporate a bunch of url schemes for launching bundled apps. For example, tel://2125551212 actually launches the phone app and calls 212-555-1212. It even works with words like tel://212555bmx1. The OS simply decodes the letters to numbers and you end up calling 212-555-2691.
FaceTime got its own url scheme, facetime://, which works the same way as above. 1Tapps’ new app creates these urls and adds them as bookmarks which can be saved to your home screen.
As with other notable workarounds, I wouldn’t be surprised if this little feature sneaks it’s way into iOS6.
Link: App Store
Via: Redmond Pie
