FaceTime glitch discovered on group chats where people can listen in without user picking up phone

Monday, January 28, 2019
Anyone who has an Apple device with FaceTime may want to disable the group chat option for a few days after a bug was discovered that lets users listen in on people they're calling without them picking up.

The callers can even see through the front-facing camera of the person they're calling. The glitch was flagged by 9to5Mac on Monday.
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The glitch works like this - a user can call someone using FaceTime, then tap "add person" and add their own phone number. Without that user answering the phone, you'll get audio streamed into the call.

If the user hits the phone's power button to end or decline the call, the audio is cut out, but the callers can then see through the person's front-facing camera.
Apple said it has a fix for the problem and will release it in a software update later in the week. It also disabled Group FaceTime until the update is released.

"We're aware of this issue, and we have identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week," Apple said in a statement Tuesday.

To disable FaceTime on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, follow these steps.
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Disabling FaceTime on a Mac:
--Open the FaceTime app
--Choose FaceTime in the menu
--Choose "Turn off FaceTime"



Disabling FaceTime on an iPhone or iPad:
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--Open Settings
--Scroll down to FaceTime app
--Hit the button, turning green slider to gray

ABC News contributed to this report.
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