In a daring move after his iPhone X decided not to unlock when demoing Face ID, Craig Federighi performed a live demonstration of FaceTime's latest and perhaps greatest feature: group chats.
A chat for you and all your friends... and acquaintances
FaceTime's group chat feature will allow for up to 32 participants in one chat at a time. When one person speaks, their floating chat square will become the largest on the screen, so you know who's talking, or you can manually tap or click someone to focus on their square.
Integration with Messages
If you have a group chat going in Messages and want to talk to everyone at once and at the same time, you can start a FaceTime call to all participants in that particular conversation. This makes it perfect for conference calls, making quick plans, and getting all your high school buddies in the same room for some reminiscing (or something — whatever old friends do).
Filters and fun
Of course, where would Apple be without its gimmicky lighthearted additions to messaging — you'll be able to add live filters you FaceTime, including Animoji and Memoji, so, as the demo showed, you can be a comic book-style koala or a spooky ghost, tongue sticking out and all.
One more thing
You can even use FaceTime audio on your Apple Watch to participate in a group chat.
