Apple's poor software quality might have just cut people off from FaceTime during a pandemic

Apple's recently released iOS 13.4 and macOS 10.15.4 have rendered some people unable to make FaceTime calls to people with older devices, according to reports. Those with the latest version of iOS and macOS cannot call anyone running iOS 9.3.5/6.

The issue has been discussed at length on social networks and forums, with MacRumors spotting the trend.

While it isn't confirmed that this is a bug, there's little reason for Apple to make this move intentionally – we've reached out to Apple to confirm. And either way, it's a problem for people who need to communicate with friends and family at a time where doing exactly that has never been more important. We're in the middle of a global pandemic, and people can't make FaceTime calls.

@AppleSupport updated my iPhone and iPad to iOS 13.4 yesterday and now cannot FaceTime my mother who has my old ipad3. She is in isolation due to her health and Covid19 and we have no way to FaceTime her now. Please fix this ASAP.

— Neil B (@bertrum) March 28, 2020

While Apple's normal response would be to update the impacted devices to a newer version of iOS, that's not possible for some devices. Apple's Pad 2, the first-generation iPad mini and third-generation iPad as well as iPhone 4S, the first-generation iPad mini, and the fifth-generation iPod touch cannot be updated beyond iOS 9.3.6, for example.

Right now the only solution appears to be to use a service like WhatsApp – probably not Zoom! – instead. Good luck explaining that to someone who's never used it before. Or only has an iPad!

Assuming this is a bug, it's another example of Apple's software quality slide. The release of iOS 13 was notoriously problematic, with the same problem leveled against macOS 10.15.