How to FaceTime Without Wi–Fi

Last Updated: November 1, 2020 Tested

This wikiHow teaches you how to use FaceTime on your iPhone or iPad when you don't have access to reliable Wi-Fi. As long as you have a mobile data plan that's 3G or better, you can use FaceTime to make video and audio calls with comparable quality to Wi-Fi. You'll just need to adjust a few settings before you begin.

Steps

1
Open your iPhone or iPad's Settings
. It's the gray gear icon on the home screen.
2
Enable FaceTime if you haven't already. If you're new to FaceTime, scroll down and tap the FaceTime option (it has a green icon with a white camera inside) and make sure the switch is set to the On (green) position. If it's gray or white, tap it to turn it green.
- Tap the back button to return to the Settings menu when you're finished.
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3
Tap Cellular or Mobile. You'll see one of these two options near the top of the Settings menu in the first group of options.^{[1]
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4
Slide the "Cellular Data" or "Mobile Data" switch to the On position
. If the switch was already green, simply skip to the next step.
5
Scroll down and slide the "FaceTime" switch to the On position
. If FaceTime's switch is already green, there's no need to make any changes. If it's gray or white, tap it to turn it green.
6
Disable Wi-Fi if necessary. If you aren't near a Wi-Fi access point, you can skip this step. But if your phone or tablet keeps trying to connect to weak Wi-Fi networks, you'll want to turn off Wi-Fi so it doesn't interfere with FaceTime calls. To do this, go to the Home screen and swipe up (iPhone 8 and earlier) or swipe down from the top-right corner (iPhone X and later). Then, then tap the Wi-Fi icon to toggle it off.
7
Place or answer a FaceTime call. Now that you've set up FaceTime to work with your mobile data plan, you can use it to make video and audio calls on your iPhone or iPad.
- Since FaceTime calls can use a lot of data, try saving your FaceTime calls for Wi-Fi unless you have an unlimited data plan.
- To see how much data a FaceTime call used, open the FaceTime app, tap the small "'" in a circle beside the call," and find the data amount next to the call time (e.g., 1028 KB).

Community Q&A

Question

How do I download cydia?

Community Answer

This can get kind of complicated. You usually need to jailbreak your iPhone, and this requires special software and steps. You can probably find a tutorial on the internet.