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

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.

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.

this also happens when iphone is unlocked. It works only when whatsapp is in foreground... the more I test.

Seems for me something like an issue in

applicationWillResignActive

applicationDidEnterBackground

or the other methods...

with iOS 12.x it works fine like expected!

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.

I have the same problem as above. My screen goes black when I am using whats app. c.licking on the brightness does nothing.

The camera is on.

what shall I do?

thank you

charmaine

Can you double check something? Open Settings ➔ WhatsApp ➔ Camera and make sure that it is set to ON.

The other way to check it is open Settings ➔ Privacy ➔ Camera and make sure WhatsApp is set to ON.

Axel F.

I’m having the same issue. I turn video on and off but it doesn’t change anything. I went to settings > WhatsApp > Camera and switched it off then on again and when I received a call after that it worked fine, but I don’t know if it’s completely fixed since the call was just a few minutes ago.

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.

My iOS has been updated to 13.5 and so is the other person's. I am hoping it stops doing that overtime. Just got a new battery so hoping that will make a difference, otherwise I have no idea whats happening. It only happens with WhatsApp. Facetime and other video apps work fine. Thank you for your suggestion though.

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

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!

Apple will never fix requiring that the phone be unlocked to enable the video portion of a call in a 3rd party app; it’s an essential security feature. So just unlock the phone before making a call or when receiving a call.

@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

For me it's indeed happening on an iPhone 7. And it seems random - currently working occasionally better with hitting the lock screen notification, but NOT working when first unlocking and the going to answer the call.

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