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I have a Mac and an Android phone. I can use FaceTime and people can call me using my email address.

I want people to be able to place calls with me using my phone number.

So I've added my phone number to my Apple ID as explained in "Choose how people can call you in FaceTime on Mac". Got an SMS with validation code, validated the thing, and now the phone is associated there. So far so good.

Then I've signed off & on of FaceTime, restarted the Mac, to no avail: in FaceTime preferences, the number does not appear.

Is it simply because FaceTime requires an iPhone and there's no way around it? (The support page does not tell this)
Or am I missing something?

I'm on macOS 10.15 Catalina beta, as a developer I needed this to work with latest Xcode beta features.

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2 Answers 2

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Can I be reached on FaceTime on Mac using my non-iPhone phone number?

No. You need an iPhone to do that.

I've added my phone number to my Apple ID

What you have done is associated your mobile number with your Apple ID. The mobile number can be used to receive verification code when logging in with your Apple ID (if you do not have an active trusted device).

Using FaceTime with your mobile number requires the mobile number to be registered with the FaceTime service. You are prompted to register the mobile number when you use your mobile number with an iPhone.

P.S.

There's a workaround that you can attempt. You can temporarily insert the SIM card in an iPhone. The iPhone will prompt you to register the number with FaceTime service (which it does by sending an MMS). Note that your service operator may charge for the MMS.

Once the number is registered with the FaceTime service, you can configure the FaceTime app on your Mac such that you can be reached on FaceTime via your mobile number. Do note that if the iPhone is set up with a different or someone else's Apple ID, make sure you ignore any alert to associate the mobile number with that Apple ID.

Once setup, you can remove the SIM card from the iPhone and continue to use it normally. Note that this isn't a full-proof, official or recommended approach. You are advised to proceed with caution.

Such workarounds aren't recommended and you can best experience all the service offerings by Apple if you stick to the platform.

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    Thanks a lot for the very clear explanation, workaround, and caution about gotchas. I'll probably get an iPhone soonish, but I needed to know if I can get FaceTime to work this way today, for, uh, reasons...
    – Hugues M.
    Sep 13, 2019 at 12:21
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You are correct - there’s no activation path on macOS and Messages / FaceTime only absorb a phone number when it’s not assigned to an iPhone used to sign in to your iCloud account.

You added a multi factor sms and not a reachable link via FaceTime (good effort here BTW it was worth a shot).

To do what you seek, get that number on a SIM and into an iPhone to link the phone number to your AppleID by activating FaceTime or messages on an iOS. You can then test how long that persists when you swap that sim back to your preferred mobile device OS or just put your other mobile number on iOS.

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  • Thanks. It's unfortunate that the official support articles do not spell that out clearly. One of the links you provide says "If you're using an iPhone, FaceTime automatically registers your phone number", cool, but that does not explicitly say that manually registering the phone number with Apple ID is not enough for FaceTime to pick it up... despite what the article I linked says.
    – Hugues M.
    Sep 13, 2019 at 12:25
  • @HuguesM. That is canonical Apple - they rarely state no and the omission of “you can also do it this way” is almost always a hard no. They rarely forget to tell you what you can do so paying attention closely to what’s not said will let you know a lot reading Apple support articles.
    – bmike ♦
    Sep 15, 2019 at 14:10

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