There have long been devices that allowed you to use your Mac as a speaker phone. In the long ago, you’d plug some device into a phone jack in your wall (assuming you even had such a thing), then plug another cable into your Mac. The results were spotty at best. Nowadays, you’ve got solutions like iChat and Skype, but they don’t connect to your iPhone.
With the combination of Yosemite and iOS 8, you’ll get a notification on your Mac when your iPhone rings, giving you the option of accepting the call, or ignoring it. You can answer the call from your iPhone, of course, but having the ability to minimize the interruption, keep your focus on your Mac, is a godsend to me.
From Apple’s web site:
Now you can make and receive iPhone calls right on your Mac. When your iPhone rings, you’ll get a notification on your Mac showing you the caller’s name, number, and profile picture. Click the notification to answer, and your Mac becomes a speakerphone. You can also decline the call or respond with a quick iMessage. Making a phone call from Mac is just as easy. Just click a phone number you see in Contacts, Calendar, Messages, or Safari. Dial in to a conference call from a Calendar event, and your Mac automatically enters the passcode for you. And if your iPhone rings while it’s charging in the bedroom, you can answer the call on your Mac in the living room — they just have to be on the same Wi‑Fi network. Because it works with your existing iPhone number, there’s nothing to set up. Just point, click, and say hello.
So if my phone is upstairs, and I’m downstairs on the couch with my laptop, I can still make and receive calls. Genius!
Is this simply a Bluetooth connection? It may be a bit less useful than I’d like. Same for the SMS function, as the devices may need to be in fairly close proximity.
This is a fantastic feature. There is about zero reception in my office (thanks to security glass), now I can leave my iPhone in the break room and charging and won’t miss a thing. Also much easier to copy and paste passwords / PINs received via SMS into desktop apps.
Pretty glad this was not all that much about health and fitness stuff. They also had good timing. I was watching on my iPad in the pub, and the HealthKit announcement coincided perfectly with cigarette and a 30 year old Balvenie.
My second most liked feature was actually not even announced, it is only on the Yosemite page: finally peer-to-peer support on the Apple TV (means you can send AirPlay content without joining the WLAN first). This will eliminate a lot of configuration mess in our conference rooms.
The article clearly says WiFi.
yeah i saw that, too, looks good.
So excited for this. This announcement was totally unexpected. A feature like this will definitely set Apple apart from competitors. Nobody can match Apple’s vertical integration.
I might start answering the phone on my Mac just to have iTunes automatically pause while on the phone, and then automatically unpause once the call is finished.
So glad they’re finally doing this. I was hoping for this when the iPhone was first rumored.
Thanks for the clarification.
Anyone on OS X Yosemite Developer Preview already managed to do this? 🙂
its not working for me right now. must be pretty buggy still
Can you change your mind and use the iPhone, dropping the connection to the Mac? I can see answering the call on your Mac, but then deciding you’d like it to be more private, and switch to actually using the iPhone.
Alternatively, is there a way to accept the call on the iPhone, but then kick it over to the Mac?