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When someone video calls me on WhatsApp, the screen where I can see myself turns all black

Sometimes when someone video calls me on WhatsApp I can see the other person but the screen where I can see myself turns all black even though I am in a proper lit room and even other person can’t see. Then I have to cut the call and call the person back. I am using new iPhone 11.



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Mar 24, 2020 12:58 AM

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Posted on May 18, 2020 3:29 PM

I am also running in to this problem when someone video calls me. I only have a black screen. I try to disable/enable video, but nothing turns on. It looks like the video is on but it is showing only a black screen. When I video call them back, my video shows just fine.

30 replies

Aug 29, 2020 4:01 PM in response to brightbless

so, I think its kinda Whatapp’s bugs/ this new update bugs. I just recently updated it to the newsest system ios update. 13.6.1. And a day later, it started acting up like that ONLY when my battery lower than 10%. No matter how many times people try to video call me, if I’m the one who were answering it.. it’ll turn out like that. but, if I call them instead.. that wont happen. I restart my phone, charged it and thats the end of it.

Jun 30, 2020 4:24 AM in response to brightbless

Same problem here and has been for a while. Sometimes after restarting my phone, it works a couple of time.

There's doesn't seem to be a reliable process to make it work consistently.


Receiving a video call on WhatsApp > unlocking > answering = camera is black 9 time out of 10

Receiving a video call on WhatsApp > answering by clicking on lockscreen alert = screen is black equally often


This is ludicrous and there must be a solution.

May 21, 2020 5:37 PM in response to angel0504

Update to iOS 13.5. There was a problem with some apps that displayed video that the latest release notes say are fixed by it. And have the other person update also. From your screen shot your battery is very low and the phone is in low power mode, which can also shut down video. It’s not good for the battery to be that low routinely; over time it will shorten the battery life if you regularly let it get close to zero charge.

Jun 11, 2020 7:08 AM in response to samidh

Update: It’s still happening to me but, for some reason, I’ve found that when I click the home button (I’m still using an iPhone with a home button) and then click the green bar that says “Touch to return to call” or something like that, it works! So I suggest that you guys give it a try to see if it works for you as well while we wait to see if they’ll fix it

Jun 14, 2020 7:32 AM in response to liliancdal

same happens to me with iPhone 7 @ iOS 13.5.1

It happens always when iphone is locked and there is an incoming whatsapp video call.

If iOS App is unlocked and whatsapp is the current active application then it works mostly...

@samidh also your suggestion by tapping on the bar or notification when app is not in foreground works for me only once in 10 cases...

hope they will fix it soon!

Jul 6, 2020 8:00 AM in response to ruthn

@ruthn, which iphone do you use? Iam facing this issue on iPhone 7 for me. Seems that happens on each device without face id. Other apps like viber handle this in a better way than whatsapp/facebook.

Can you try to unlock your phone and then accept incoming video call when phone is unlocked? I assume in this case there will be no black screen. I am sure it is a programming issue by whatsapp developers...

Maybe we shoukd inform whatsapp developers about that. I suppose that this is not an iOS issue

Nov 5, 2020 12:20 PM in response to Axel Foley

happened with me today

i had a video call, everything is just fine

when I turned the camera (switched to general one) to show something, it became black

my mom can see me an everything I show, but I can’t see myself, it’s all black

flipped the camera once again and again and again, nothing changed.

Cancel the call, called her back, everything is fine.

using iPhone 11 for 8 days and this issue freaked me out, to be honest.


can anyone help with it?

please tell me it’s a software problem, not hardware

When someone video calls me on WhatsApp, the screen where I can see myself turns all black

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