Apple is having to fix a serious flaw in Group FaceTime that enables you to hear what someone is doing - before they've answered or rejected your call.
The company has taken Group FaceTime offline, presumably with a view to diagnosing and resolving the issue. It's unclear how serious the flaw is for now, so we'd recommend either not using FaceTime or disabling it in Settings until a fix is released.
Some people report they can still replicate the issue (we can't) so it's best to be safe and disable FaceTime for now.
Whether a fix will need an update to the FaceTime app on its own or a wider release of an iOS 12 update remains to be seen.
Apple's system status page currently shows "Group FaceTime is temporarily unavailable", but there has been no other official communication from the company so far.
The flaw first started spreading on social media and was tested out by various users before Apple took the action of disabling Group FaceTime. You can see what happens in the video below.
How to disable FaceTime in iOS
- Open the Settings app
- Look for the FaceTime menu
- Toggle the switch so it is greyed out
How to disable FaceTime on your Mac
- Open the FaceTime app on your Mac
- Click the FaceTime menu in the Menu bar
- Select Turn off FaceTime