January 2026
Interested in having a FaceTime chat on the big screen? It seems like a good idea to sit in your living room and see your contacts big as life on your TV. However, your Apple TV doesn’t have a camera or a microphone, which are necessary for FaceTime.
Apple has addressed that problem with a feature called Continuity Camera, in which your iPhone’s camera and microphone can be used to extend the capability of your Apple TV.
As usual, there are certain provisos. Your devices must be running recent versions of iOS & TV OS. Operating systems must be at least iOS 17 and tvOS 17. Your devices must be connected to the same network and same Apple ID, yada yada. Your mileage may vary.
Once you open the FaceTime app on your Apple TV, you’ll see a chance to connect with your iPhone (or iPad).
The screen below shows what pops up on your iPhone.
Once you accept, you’ll get the prompt below to position your iPhone camera appropriately for use by FaceTime. This is potentially the hardest part. It’s difficult to get your phone propped up in the right position unless you have some sort of mount or tripod.
Below is my phone mount on a mini tripod. The tripod had a ball-swivel head, which is what you want to get the camera pointed in the correct direction. This product on Amazon seems to be a very similar setup.
Once you have your phone mounted, you’re ready to FaceTime. Below is what it looks like in a FaceTime call. Since my chair is pretty far from the TV, I placed the iPhone camera on a table closer to me to capture a better image.
Versions of the iPhone from iPhone 11 on, will use a feature called Center Stage, to automatically keep the camera image centered on you, even if you move around a bit.
Problems, etc.
The above is the best-case scenario where everything works as expected.
If your phone isn’t on the same iCloud account as the Apple TV, you are guided to scan a QR code to connect. Frankly, I was never able to get that scenario to work.
Error messages I got:
“There was a problem loading your recent calls. You may need to restart your iOS device or Apple TV.”
“To continue, go to FaceTime Settings on your iOS device, then sign in to your Apple Account.” (I was already signed in and didn’t see any sign-in option in the FaceTime Settings.)
Other Tripods
Your setup might work better with a full-sized camera tripod, or something in between, like this Gorilla Pod.
FaceTime with Apple TV is a cool feature, but it does require some patience to get it set up the first time. Enjoy.