How do I see on Facetime who is online?

Thanks a lot for letting me know. This is quite disappointing! If you have to make a call first to find out if a user is online or not, this is rather cumbersome. If Skype and similar apps managed to add a status indicator, I can't quite understand why Apple can't (clearly they must have this kind of info). This is really not a very user friendly UI.

There are two improvements that Apple should make as soon as possible:

1) Display the status of the user

2) Do not show users with no iPhone/no Facetime support

Thanks. I'll try to provide the feedback. See with Messages the good thing is that as soon as you start a new message, it will tell you if the user is online (on 3G/4G or Wifi) or not by showing iMessage (online) or text message (offline). This makes a difference in example if I am away on holidays and using a Wifi, as I don't want to pay for the messaging costs. Now if they had no indicator there, I could possibly run the risk of paying for the message.

I don't really think it has anything to do with the passcode lock. On Skype I can see if somebody is online or not even if the passcode lock is on. Apple can just have a process running in the background that checks every now and then if the users is still available.

It's not really the same as a phone call. Because with Facetime Apple has more info available (or should have at least). So if Facetime had an indicator that the user is available, I don't waste my time trying my luck to call him only to find out of he is online or not.

Well, it's good to hear that you are happy with it, but to me innovation is a good thing, and if it saves me that 1 minute I have to spent to call somebody on Facetime just to find out if he is online or not, then I will appreciate it. I have used apps like Skype for years and having a status shown makes a difference to me. Plus we are not talking about an old traditional phone call any more, when we lacked this kind of information. This info/data is available, so why not make good use of it.

If people don't want to share their status, ok, they should get an option to opt-out.

The next problem is, why does Apple show all contacts in Facetime even if quite some of them will not even be able to use Facetime either because they don't have an iPhone or their particular version of iOS doesn't support it.

To me, it seems like this app was rushed out and not enough time was spent to make the user experience good. Apple is generally known for a good user experience, I hope that they improve the Facetime app soon. I provided my feedback to them via the link shown in a previous answer.

Thanks a lot for all your answers! I will wait until Apple releases an improved version of this app.

I understand your concerns (I am not using the Find a Friend app in example ... but here it is optional ... you can share you location with selected contacts, which is nice. Maybe some day I will use this app, but then I can share my location just with a specific person in example).

I think FT should appeal to a wide range of users. So if someone doesn't want to share their status, they should be given the option to opt-out (or as on Skype, you have to approve new contact requests first), whereas for all the other ones, it will show their status. On Skype I always show my status, all of my collegues do and my friends as well ... I guess this is why I I find it quite useful. So I don't bother initiating a chat or call if I see that my collegue or friend is not available/online.