With COVID my grandfather has been doing telepresence visits with his doctors, for COVID among other reasons.

Mostly they were using a 3rd party solution like webx/zoom/etc but one doctor (automated in an online form) noticed his number was tied to iMessage and offered to just FaceTime him at his appointment time. Super easy for him (at 94) to self-manage vs any other solution where we (my mother or myself) need to be around to set things up for him.

Not sure how they are doing this exactly, if this is something Apple specifically enabled for healthcare or whatever, but its a fantastic experience.

Whatever solution they were using did have an "no I have an android and a 'use my computer' option" not sure what path they led down.

It’s a shame there isn’t seamless ability to Facetime with Android users like there is to make a voice call or text with them. We (read: tech community and/or society) should fix this. It’d be in society’s interest if a video call between android and Apple was as easy as a voice call is. (and I do think Facetime between Apple users is this easy... I sometimes use Facetime purely because my WiFi is a little better than my cell signal).

Google's built-in app (Duo) is made available on iOS, but Facetime isn't made available on Android.

Apple could easily open up Facetime and iMessage, and they've evaluated doing exactly this, but they ultimately determined that keeping these pieces of communication software exclusive to Apple devices is a big part of why the devices themselves are so sticky.

This may be a spot where regulation would be to the advantage of the consumer.

WhatsApp is quite popular in my part of the world(India) and in europe. Casual video calls are never a concern.

Isn't Google's Duo available for iOS?

There are countless ways of making it happen by installing apps. And the user experience and integration has improved. But I mean out-of-the-box, universal functionality. So your 94 year old great grandparent can use it without anything.

It is, and it can work; but it also doesn't typically get the fully blessed experience a first party app does.

Duo integrates into the latest Android like FaceTime integrates into iOS, it would be nice if Apple made FaceTime / iMessage available on Android (lol, never gonna happen) or allowed Duo to integrate into iOS like 3rd party apps can in Android (like WhatsApp video calling does). Probably the biggest feature I miss from Android since moving to iOS.

Apple is probably doing more harm than good at this point for themselves by keeping iMessage/FaceTime so locked down to their hardware since their revenue stream is trending more towards services and less weighted in hardware.

I'm not sure if Apple ever explained why they didn't open up FaceTime? I seem to remember that when they presented it they said it would become an open standard?

There have been persistent rumors of an issue with patents.

If they were texting the doctors messages would be blue if recipient had iMessage and green if normal SMS. Most likely how he found out he had an iPhone he could FaceTime.

No, it happened via a webform. This wasn't an adhoc thing, this was something seamlessly integrated into their EHR system.

I think this was your point but yea, I'd be more concerned that access to your doctor is contingent upon installing a specific proprietary software and accepting that software's terms of use. That's like a doctor saying you can only visit them if you drive there in a Chevrolet.

I can call my doctor using any phone I like, and E-mail her using any E-mail client I like. It is beyond unreasonable to require a patient to install specific client software in order to access care.

medical is a little different because those comms tools need to be HIPPA-compliant