FaceTime first made its way to iPhone in 2010 after Steve Jobs pulled the classic “one more thing” at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) that year. FaceTime was quickly followed by iMessage’s launch in 2011. Since then, both apps have become a staple for Apple users. In a recent Techmeme Ride Home podcast episode, former iPhone lead engineer Justin Santamaria recalls the first time Steve Jobs saw FaceTime in action.
In the post-pandemic world where video calling has been normalized, it is important to remember that when FaceTime was introduced, video calling was expensive, the internet was also expensive (and slow), and you could count video call service providers on your fingertips.
In the podcast, Santamaria recalls his time at Apple when the company was creating FaceTime and iMessage. He joined the company in 2003 as a build engineer. His role entailed working on internal development projects related to system automation. Subsequently, he joined the team that developed the iChat communication program for Mac OS X.
Come 2009, Santamaria was appointed manager of a team developing the user interface and features of the Phone, Messages, and FaceTime apps on iPhone, iPod, and iPad. He recalls that Steve Jobs was rather excited at the first FaceTime demo he witnessed. Santamaria recalls:
“I was in my boss’s office with a team… and someone was in another office, and someone was in another office. We were using four computers set up to go, and I remember being instructed to whatever happened, pretend it’s going well. It’s beta software, weeks before release… when FaceTime did that “woom” sound, that’s when he popped out from the “woom” into the 3D View, and I remember Steve going, ‘Oh my god, I’m gonna make the crowd sh*t their pants.’”
In his interview, the former Apple executive also discusses how the team unlocked emojis for people around the world instead of restricting them to users in Japan. The conversation also touches upon the blue/green messaging bubbles that were caught in controversy recently.
If you have some time on your hands and want to go on a trip down memory lane, we suggest you listen to the complete podcast episode on Apple Podcasts.
What do you think of Steve Jobs’ reaction to FaceTime? If you’re a long-time Apple user, was your reaction similar when the feature launched? Tell us in the comments.
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