Why is Facetime Screen Sharing So Buggy?
I fix Macs for a living. Up until about 3 months ago, I did this on-site, at my client's homes or offices. I've had my Mac fixing company since 2003. I've never gotten into remote work though. Getting some form of screen sharing working on a random person's computer, especially when that person is generally totally clueless... that's a bigger project usually than whatever I'm there to fix.
However lately I've had no choice. So if you are doing Mac to Mac Facetime, Apple actually has a screen sharings option built in. So I can see, or control, someone's screen. Or I can invite them to see my screen. It's all built in and when it works, it works well.
It really is a game changer. It's fully built in to everyone's Macs already, and it works extremely well...
When it works. Which is about.... half the time?
Does anyone know why it is so sketchy? Facetime video and Facetime audio essentially ALWAYS work, 100% of the time. But Facetime screen sharing is totally hit or miss. Sometimes it completely does not work. Sometimes it works perfectly first try and feels like i'm screen sharing a Mac in the other room, not across the state.
I'm really bummed that, once all this corona crap started, Apple didn't prioritize Facetime. They could have fixed this screen sharing glitchyness, they could have released a few simple, built-in games that people could play together. Simple stuff like trivia or pictionary. And they could have built in some group video watching, so one person in a conversation could open a quicktime playable movie and stream that to everyone else. Anyone could pause it and it would pause for everyone. But all viewers would always be able to hear and speak to each other. They really could have made Facetime a one-stop-shop for stay-at-home collaboration.
But new features aside, I'd settle for existing features actually working reliably. I always tell my customers, we'll try to do Facetime Screen Sharing. "If it works, it works perfectly. But sometimes it doesn't work at all, because Apple" So frustrating.
